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Microsoft has been periodically trimming its workforce for two years. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)
Microsoft plans to make a new round of layoffs across the company, impacting employees whose performance has been deemed to fall short of its standards.
The company confirmed the job cuts but declined to disclose the number. Microsoft often backfills roles when people exit due to under-performance.
“At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent. We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.
Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts in January 2023, two years ago, as part of a broader pattern of cost-cutting in the tech industry at the time. That represented about 5% of the company’s workforce at the time.
The company has continued to make smaller-scale layoffs since then, impacting a variety of units, products and divisions. Some of the cuts impacted the Xbox division following Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Microsoft employed about 232,800 people as of the end of September, the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2025, according to GeekWire’s calculations based on growth information disclosed by Microsoft CFO Amy Hood on the company’s earnings call. That’s down from a peak of 236,748 two years ago.
Business Insider first reported the news of the latest cuts.
