Microsoft has announced a fresh round of layoffs. The round comes on top of Microsoft’s downsizing, which was made public in January 2023 and led to 10,000 job losses at the software company. GeekWire reports that 276 employees of Washington, the company’s home state, are affected.
The impacted employees primarily worked in sales, support, and customer service. 66 of the 276 employees were virtual workers. Many affected Washington division employees have also joined LinkedIn.
According to a source, it is highly unusual for Microsoft to reduce staff just one week into the 2024 fiscal year. Additionally, a spokeswoman said that organizational and employee changes are a normal and necessary element of running the business. “For our future and the support of our clients and partners, we will continue to give strategic development sectors top priority and financial investment,” she said.
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In an email, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the company was firing thousands of workers due to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” While reducing positions in some areas, the letter states that “we will continue to hire in key strategic areas.”
For several months after the layoff announcement, Microsoft continued to eliminate positions across all of its divisions, including Xbox, HoloLens, LinkedIn, and others. On the other hand, the software behemoth is making significant investments in the AI sector, particularly in Bing Chat.
