Microsoft to cut 10,000 jobs by end of March

Technology company Microsoft on Wednesday said that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs or 5% of its workforce by end of March.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said that the company will align its cost structure with its revenue and customer demand.

“We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted,” Nadella said. “The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.”

The development comes weeks after Nadella, in an interview with CNBC, had said that the company is not immune from the changes driving the world economy. He had added that the company has to ensure that its expenses are in line with its revenue growth.

“The next two years are probably going to be the most challenging,” he added. “We did have a lot of acceleration during the pandemic, and there’s some amount of normalisation of that demand. And on top of it, there is a real recession in some parts of the world.”

Several other big technology companies have also slashed their workforce in the last few months amid fears of a global recession. On January 5, e-commerce company Amazon had announced it will lay off more than 18,000 employees. In November, the online retail giant had announced 10,000 layoffs.

Social media company Twitter had laid off 50% of its workers across the world in November while Meta had also fired 11,000 employees during the same month.

Also read: Recession will hit one-third of world economy in 2023, says IMF chief

The layoffs come amidst an increase in global unemployment as projected by a report released by the International Labour Organization on Monday. The United Nations agency predicted global unemployment to increase by 30 lakh to 20.8 crore in 2023, pushing the joblessness rate to 5.8%.

The decrease in employment rate has been attributed to several factors like, Covid-19, inflation, rising cost-of living and the geopolitical crises in Ukraine.