According to News Agency, the US technology giant Microsoft announced on the 18th that due to the poor economic situation and changes in customer demand, it will lay off 10,000 people around the world by the end of March, accounting for about 5% of the total number of employees. The layoffs and related changes will cost the company $1.2 billion in fourth-quarter 2022 earnings.
Microsoft said the layoffs were in response to “changing macroeconomic conditions and customer priorities.” In addition, the company will adjust a series of hardware systems and consolidate rented office locations.
As of June last year, Microsoft had 221,000 employees worldwide, of which 122,000 were in the United States. Microsoft has not disclosed which areas the layoffs are mainly concentrated in. but in its notice to the Washington State Employment Department on the 18th, it mentioned that a total of 878 employees at the headquarters and two nearby office locations will be abolished.
Regarding the reasons for layoffs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that many customers increased computer technology-related spending during the new crown epidemic. but are now trying to optimize spending; in addition, layoffs also take into account the possible risk of economic recession.
Nadella said that despite layoffs in some areas, Microsoft will continue to recruit talent in key strategic areas such as artificial intelligence technology.
During the epidemic period, working from home drove a surge in demand for office software and cloud computing services. During this period, Microsoft recruited a large number of people. The number of its global employees increased from 163,000 at the end of June 2020 to 221,000 in June 2022, an increase of about 36%. .
Joshua White, a professor of finance at Vanderbilt University in the United States, believes that Microsoft’s layoffs “are largely caused by overhiring.”
In response to the downward pressure on the economy, U.S. technology companies have recently laid off workers. Facebook’s parent company, “Yuan” announced in November last year that it plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees, accounting for about 13% of the total number of employees. Amazon announced earlier this month that it would expand layoffs to more than 18,000 people, or about 6% of its workforce. Salesforce also announced layoffs of about 10% earlier this month.