On Tuesday, Microsoft started laying off nearly 3% of its workforce, totaling about 6,000 employees.
A spokesperson from Microsoft mentioned via email to Hill, “We are continuing to make the necessary organizational changes to ensure the company thrives in a dynamic market.”
The Washington-based tech giant currently employs around 228,000 people worldwide, with about 126,000 based in the United States. Those cuts will impact thousands.
Notifications regarding layoffs have already been sent to certain employees.
This isn’t Microsoft’s first round of layoffs this year. Earlier cuts affected performance-based roles across various departments. Additionally, the company hired roughly 1,900 employees from Activision Blizzard and Xbox in early 2024.
These recent layoffs are part of a larger trend in the tech industry, following Microsoft’s significant reduction of around 10,000 positions, or nearly 5% of its workforce, in January 2023.
During a revenue call at the end of April, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood stated, “Operating profit margin increased by 1 percentage point year over year to 46%. This surpassed expectations as we continue to enhance agility for high-performance teams by trimming the number of management layers.”
The company, co-founded by billionaire Bill Gates, reportedly earned $70 billion in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, with net profits reaching $25.8 billion—an 18% increase.
CEO Satya Nadella noted that cloud and artificial intelligence are essential for businesses to boost productivity, cut costs, and foster growth.
“We are innovating and delivering solutions to our customers across our whole stack, from AI infrastructure and platforms to applications,” he remarked.
