Microsoft to Cut Engineering Jobs This Week

A new report in Bloomberg claims that Microsoft will make “significant” job cuts within its engineering ranks on Wednesday. The report cites a single source, and there are very few details. But a separate report from Sky News claims that the software giant will lay off about 5 percent of its workforce.

Microsoft previously cut about 1 percent of its workforce of 220,000 employees in October 2022, but the new layoffs will be much larger, perhaps more than the 5 percent Sky News reports. Like other Big Tech companies, Microsoft has also eliminated open positions and has largely stopped hiring in the past year.

Bloomberg notes that Microsoft has been slower to slash its workforce than its rivals: Amazon, for example, is laying off over 18,000 employees and Meta announced significant job cuts in late 2022. But next week Microsoft is expected to announce a 2 percent revenue gain in the previous quarter, its slowest increase since 2017, and that will likely explain the cuts.

Microsoft declined to comment on this story.