At the beginning of this year, Microsoft announced its plan to cut 10,000 employees from its workforce. The company’s CEO indicated that they are currently facing a different economic reality that didn’t align with initial plans made at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a WARN notice filed over the weekend, Microsoft has yet again been hit by another round of layoffs. This time a total of 689 employees based in Redmond, Bellevue, and Issaquah have been affected.
The Verge’s Tom Warren also took to Twitter to confirm the layoffs and highlighted that the affected employees Visual Studio for Mac, Entertainment & Devices, and Azure Edge + Platform teams.
the Microsoft layoffs continue today with 689 employees impacted in Redmond, Bellevue, and Issaquah. I’m hearing the Visual Studio for Mac team has been hit hard, along with cuts in Entertainment & Devices, Azure Edge + Platform, and more pic.twitter.com/PiXka56agR
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) March 7, 2023
This isn’t the first time the tech firm has been hit hard by layoffs this year. Its Surface, Xbox, and HoloLens divisions were also affected back in February. GitHub, GitLab, and Yahoo are also among the major tech firms that have been hit by layoffs.
The Hololens layoffs have particularly sparked concern among the public in recent times though Microsoft’s COO and CVP of Windows and Devices, Robin Seiler indicated that the company is still committed to supporting HoloLens 2 and its Mixed Reality program.
We are likely to see Microsoft lay off even more employees over the next couple of months as the company is yet to hit the 10,000 employees mark.
Despite the layoff news across various Microsoft divisions being unfortunate, the company isn’t in a unique position as the tough economic times have also affected other tech firms like PayPal which in turn prompted layoffs.
