Microsoft will lay off 10,000 workers, about five per cent of its total workforce, its CEO Satya Nadella announced on Wednesday, terming it a hard choice that the tech giant had to make to remain a "consequential company" amid global economic uncertainties.
Microsoft is the latest company after Facebook and Amazon to cut jobs as the bloodbath continues in the technology sector in 2023.
Describing the current times as “significant change”, Indian-origin Nadella said customers who accelerated their digital spend during the Covid-19 pandemic, are now optimising their digital spend to do more with less.
“Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs” through the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, he said.
“This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted,” Nadella said in an email sent to employees.