Microsoft Slashes 9,000 Jobs in Major Restructuring Shake-Up

According to reports, Microsoft is laying off 4% of its employees worldwide. The tech giant said on July 2, that it was letting go of almost 9,000 workers from several departments.

Professionals of all experience levels are apparently preparing for the impact of these layoffs, which are occurring across countries. This time, Microsoft disclosed the development on the second day of the month, even though it typically announces structural changes at the end of the new fiscal year.

Microsoft stated that it will keep implementing organisational changes that are required to best position the firm and teams for success in a dynamic environment, according to a media report that quoted a Microsoft spokesperson.

The software powerhouse has been making layoff announcements one after the other this year; in January, it said it intended to fire 1% of its employees depending on their performance.

Microsoft Constantly Following Layoff Practice

The software company laid off more than 6,000 employees in May and another 300 in June. In a similar vein, the business let go of 10,000 workers in 2023. In light of its recent round of significant layoffs, the 50-year-old software titan is actively working to lower its workforce.

This is reportedly the company's second-largest mass layoff, following the approximately 18,000 jobs it eliminated in 2014. Although no specific causes have been mentioned, it is thought that one of the possible causes could be the fastest-growing market this year: coding assistants.

Google just released its own version, and although Microsoft has not yet revealed plans to release a comparable product, it is apparently altering internal processes to make use of these capabilities.

These coding assistants, to put it simply, indicate that businesses are embracing automation and AI-driven productivity in the software development process.

Focusing more AI Driven Solutions

Companies like Google and Microsoft are now investing the most in AI research and development. They are essentially seeing a quick evolution in their developer positions.

As AI technologies start to replace some of the more traditional activities, this restructure is expected to have an impact on the majority of these programmers.

The layoffs coincide with Meta's aggressive procurement of expertise; it has reportedly spent $3 billion, a significant acquisition in and of itself, to acquire the best AI experts.

Even at the expense of reorganising their current resources and associated expenses, the majority of large tech businesses appear to be striving to draw in the best AI expertise. For the March quarter, Microsoft recorded a net income of around $26 billion on revenue of $70 billion.

According to data gathered by FactSet, Microsoft remained one of the most profitable businesses in the S&P 500 index, with the results significantly above the consensus on Wall Street.

Due to anticipated growth in Azure cloud services and corporate productivity software subscriptions, executives predicted a 14% year-over-year revenue increase in the June quarter.