Microsoft To Lay Off Around 9,000 Workers: Report

Microsoft has reportedly confirmed that it is laying off about 4% of its total workforce. According to The Seattle Times, the job cuts would affect multiple teams across the world, including its sales division and Xbox video game business. The King game division (Candy Crush) alone reduced its workforce by 10%, equating to about 200 positions.

Although the company declined to disclose the exact number of layoffs, based on Microsoft's full-time headcount of 228,000 in June 2024, the cutbacks are expected to impact around 9,000 workers. This marks Microsoft's second major layoff this year and its largest in over two years. The company had previously reduced its workforce by 6,000 employees, roughly 3%, in May and cut an additional 300 roles the following month at its Redmond headquarters.

This wave of cutbacks is driven by multiple factors, including Microsoft's significant investment of over $80 billion in data centers, specialised computer chips and other infrastructure essential to advance its AI capacities. According to the report, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood stated that Microsoft was focused on "building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers” of management. However, the job cuts raised concerns about the replacement of the human workforce by AI code-generating tools. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that “maybe 20, 30% of the code” for some of Microsoft’s coding projects “are probably all written by software.”