Karmactive Staff
Microsoft is cutting 6,000-7,000 jobs from its payroll – that’s 3% of its people. For workers in Washington state, the cuts hit hard: 1,985 employees lost their jobs Tuesday, including 1,510 at the Redmond main office.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC. These cuts affect everyone from entry-level staff to seasoned managers across all divisions – Xbox, LinkedIn, and core Microsoft teams.
The cuts extend across all levels, teams, and locations. While past layoffs included performance-based cuts in January, these cuts focus on reducing management layers to speed up decision-making.
CFO Amy Hood laid it out plain: Microsoft wants “fewer managers” to speed up decision-making. This comes right after Microsoft posted $25.8 billion in quarterly profits. The company plans to pour $80 billion this year into computer servers and data centers for AI and cloud computing.
What’s Happening in Tech Jobs?
Other tech companies are following the same playbook in 2025. Meta, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, and Dell have all cut staff while investing in AI technology.
CEO Satya Nadella explained the sales strategy shift in January: “How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market? At a time of platform shifts, you kind of want to make sure you lean into even the new design wins, and you just don’t keep doing the stuff that you did in the previous generation.”
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Worker Changes
Microsoft added strict rules: employees let go for performance can’t return for two years. But this round isn’t about performance – it’s about reshaping the company. Microsoft’s stock price tells another story: $449.26 on Monday, the year’s peak, though shy of last July’s $467.56 record.
The Road Ahead
Microsoft employs 228,000 people worldwide. The company wants more engineers and fewer administrative staff – copying what’s worked at other tech firms. The layoffs mark Microsoft’s largest workforce reduction since 2023, when the company cut 10,000 positions.
This is Microsoft’s biggest round of layoffs since cutting 10,000 jobs in 2023, when over 3,000 Seattle-area employees were affected.
