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Microsoft Corp.
laid off more employees this week, becoming the latest tech company to show signs of concern about future demand.
In July the software maker said it had plans to cut a number of positions, affecting less than 1% of its total workforce. At the time, Microsoft, which employs more than 200,000 people, said it was making the cuts as a part of a regular adjustment at the start of its fiscal year.
On Monday, the company didn’t give a figure for the number of layoffs that have started this week and didn’t confirm whether they were part of the earlier announced plans. Axios earlier reported the latest cuts.
“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.” a Microsoft spokeswoman said.
Several tech companies, including
Twitter Inc.,
Netflix Inc.
and
Uber Technologies Inc.
have been adjusting their hiring plans to deal with slowing growth and fallout from other macroeconomic factors. The companies have been cutting back on staff, reducing the size of some teams and freezing hiring.
The tech industry has been hiring rapidly for years, but the easy money that fueled years of spending is drying up. The reversal of some pandemic trends, combined with inflation and growing concern that the global economy could be headed toward a recession have cooled parts of the once-hot sector.
The Wall Street Journal reported that
Meta Platforms Inc.
is planning to cut expenses by at least 10% in the coming months, in part through staff reductions, as the social-media giant confronts stalling growth and increased competition, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The Menlo Park, Calif., company has begun nudging out staffers by reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter.
Microsoft’s latest move follows some challenges for the company. It suffered its slowest earnings growth in two years in the three months through June, hurt by a sharp slowdown in its cloud business, declining videogame sales and the effects of a strong dollar.
After earnings were unveiled in July, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer
Amy Hood
said the company would “slow the rate of hiring to focus on key growth areas.”
Microsoft shares have fallen around 30% so far this year, in line with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.
Write to Aaron Tilley at [email protected]
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