Microsoft announces new round of layoffs, customer service, support, sales staff affected

Tech Giant Microsoft announced a new round of layoffs that would affect various positions in customer service, support and sales, GeekWire reported on Monday. The report stated that Microsoft laid off 276 employees out of which 210 were sacked from the company's Redmond, Wash and Bellevue locations while 66 employees worked remotely.

Microsoft layoffs since start of the year

The company has cut 10,000 jobs since January, this year. Although a specific update has not come from Microsoft, reports reveal that the decision to restructure business at the start of the fiscal is not a new practice in the company whose fiscal year ended last month. GeekWire has confirmed the news through an inquiry without getting much details on layoffs.

“Organisational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritise and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

More information on the nature and departments affected was confirmed by certain LinkedIn posts.

Layoffs in 2023

In January this year, CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella cited reasons for layoffs and said that the step was necessary to align cost structure with revenue, thereby catering to customer demand.

The layoffs were recorded as the second largest cut in Microsoft's history after 2014 when it cut 18,000 jobs.

In addition to Microsoft, other tech giants like Amazon, Meta and Google have also laid off employees citing different reasons. The numbers which were raised during the pandemic level to meet the demand are now slowly witnessing a downward movement citing improved market conditions.

According to Layoffs.fyi, the total number of employees laid off at present includes 2,16,364 from around 844 tech companies. The recent layoffs are from companies like FrontRow, IntelyCare, Latch, Microsoft and Evernote. Some of them have even fired more than 60 per cent workforce.