Microsoft to lay off 10,000 workers due to ‘economic climate’

THE Microsoft decided to dismiss 10,000 of its workers by the end of March, with the company stating that it made this decision due to the “economic situation”.

That’s a number that represents just under 5% of its workforce, and the group explains in a filing that it made the decision “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”

In a memo to staff, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that while “customers accelerated their IT spending during the pandemic” and now want to “optimize their digital spending to do more with less’ and to ‘exercise caution as some parts of the world are in recession and other parts are expecting it’.

Microsoft announced last year in July that a small number of roles were being eliminated, while news website Axios reported in October that the company had laid off nearly 1,000 employees across various departments.

Savings measures such as layoffs, spending related to the hardware portfolio and other changes will account for a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter of the 2023 financial year, which the group will present on January 24. That charge represented a negative impact of 12 cents on earnings per share, Microsoft said. Its turnover is expected to register growth of just 2.7% in a year – a very low rate for the tech giant which is used to double-digit growth.