Microsoft laying off several thousand employees

NEW YORK

Microsoft is slashing a little less than four percent of its global workforce as it seeks to cut layers of middle management and leverage new technologies.

"We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email.

The cloud computing tech giant did not disclose the total amount of lost jobs but as of June 2024 it employed 228,000 people, bringing the latest layoffs to about 9,000 people.

The job cuts follow a round in May that saw about 6,000 positions culled from its global workforce.

The company, which is advancing in its plans to deploy AI across all its products, said it was working to "empower employees to spend more time focusing on meaningful work by leveraging new technologies and capabilities."

"Even in the best of times, we have regularly adjusted our workforce to meet the strategic demands of the business," the company added.

Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood said on an April earnings call that the company was focused on “building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers with fewer managers.”

The company has repeatedly characterized its recent layoffs as part of a push to trim management layers, but the May focus on software engineering jobs has fueled worries about how the company's own AI code-writing products could reduce the number of people need for programming jobs.

The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was one of the first tech giants to double down on artificial intelligence when the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 rocked the tech industry.