Microsoft plans to fire thousands of employees from today: Report

• Image Credit: Google

• Jan 18, 2023 | Dhupali Das

The US tech giant is planning to sack thousands of employees, with some positions expected to be removed in the...

Digital Desk: The layoff wave appears to be unstoppable, at least for the time being. After companies like Meta, Twitter, Amazon, and Goldman Sachs cut off thousands of staff, Microsoft is scheduled to announce job cuts on Wednesday, affecting around 5 percent of its workforce.

The US tech giant is planning to sack thousands of employees, with some positions expected to be removed in the human resources and engineering divisions. Microsoft's layoffs would be the most recent in the US technology sector, where several businesses have already announced cutback plans in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.

According to Sky News, the Satya Nadella-led software company plans to reduce 5% of its staff or approximately 11,000 positions. The departments that could be impacted by the job cuts include engineering divisions, Bloomberg News reported quoting a person in the know of it.

The layoffs will be much higher than previous waves in the past year, when Microsoft laid off around 1,000 employees, and are being announced ahead of Microsoft's quarterly earnings next week.

As of June 30, the company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the US and 99,000 worldwide.

It's worth mentioning that the tech giant only recently implemented a new unlimited time off policy. As per the policy, Microsoft employees with unpaid leave balances will receive a one-time payment in April, and managers will have the ability to approve unlimited "Discretionary Time Off."

Meanwhile, over 30,000 employees have been laid off internationally in just a few days of 2023. Last week, financial firm Goldman Sachs lay off approximately 3,000 staff, while e-commerce behemoth Amazon fired off 18,000 workers as part of the job reduction.

In the midst of the economic meltdown and recession fears, the firing of employees has gained traction, with over 1,600 tech employees laid off every day in 2023 internationally, including in India.