Microsoft announces layoffs of 10,000 employees, almost 5% of its workforce

The multinational Microsoft will lay off 10,000 employees, representing less than 5 percent of the company's workforce, in an effort to cut costs.

This was announced by the company in a message to the workforce and in a communication to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, making public its decision to undertake cuts that would be the largest in approximately eight years.

The workforce reduction will take place during the current fiscal quarter, which ends on March 31. The measure is part of a broader cost reduction plan and is comparable to others taken in recent times by the technology companies.

“Focusing on our short- and long-term opportunity,” Microsoft said in a message in which it acknowledged that “we are living in times of significant change” and identified three trends to consider for the company's future.

The first of them, the optimization of consumers' digital spending after the peak reached during the pandemic. Then there is the recession that the world economy is experiencing, which forces caution. Finally, the impact that the technological advance of the Artificial intelligence (IA).

“This is the context in which we, as a company, must strive to continually deliver results, while investing in our long-term opportunity,” said the company, which in turn defined three priorities for action.

Aligning costs with income and customer demand is one of these actions and will lead to the elimination of 10,000 jobs. “We know this is a challenging time for every person affected,” Microsoft said, pledging to reduce its workforce “in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.”

“It is important to note that, although we are eliminating functions in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas,” said the company, which, as a second priority for action, identified investment “in strategic areas for our future.”

The third priority for action, according to the multinational's message to its workers, is to fire them transparently and treat "our people with dignity and respect."

“These decisions are difficult, but necessary. They are especially difficult because they impact people and people's lives: our colleagues and friends. “We are committed to ensuring that all those whose roles are eliminated have our full support during these transitions,” Microsoft said.

With 47 years of history, the company founded by the billionaire Bill Gates knows that these “difficult decisions” are what guarantee it “to continue being an important company in this industry that does not forgive anyone who does not adapt to platform changes.”

With this announcement, Microsoft joins the ranks of other major technology companies that have announced thousands of job cuts in recent months. According to Bloomberg, Amazon will begin a round of layoffs on Wednesday, ultimately affecting more than 18,000 workers in the largest job cuts in its history.

For its part, the matrix of Facebook, Meta announced widespread job cuts last fall, while the social network Twitter has cut about half of its workforce.