Microsoft has reportedly cut thousands of jobs today, marking its second-largest round of layoffs in the past three years.
Two weeks ago, during its third-quarter earnings call, Microsoft hinted that layoffs were likely, and today confirmed it. On the call, CFO Amy Hood said, “We continue to focus on building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers with fewer managers,” a comment many interpreted as a diplomatic warning of job cuts at the management level.
CFO Amy Hood made the announcement while the company was already undergoing “performance-based” job cuts, in line with a Business Insider report published in late January 2025. At the time, affected employees reportedly received termination notices, according to the outlet. Microsoft has been reducing its workforce steadily since 2023, cutting over 10,000 jobs that year alone. The company also shuttered several popular game development studios in 2024, including Tango Gameworks, which Krafton has since acquired.
Today, CNBC reported that Microsoft is laying off 3 per cent of employees across all levels, teams and regions. As of the end of June 2024, the company employed 228,000 people worldwide. Even accounting for the 650 job cuts reported in September 2024—and the earlier “performance-based” cuts, which were not quantified—3 per cent equates to more than 6,000 jobs being made redundant.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. The company clarified that these latest layoffs were not performance-based.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s stock has risen by 7 percent since January 2025, according to Google Finance, suggesting shareholders may have well received the company’s recent actions. As of this writing, CEO Satya Nadella has not made a formal announcement or confirmed an exact figure for how many jobs will be affected, beyond the 3 percent estimate.
