Another 800 jobs go at Microsoft
Microsoft has announced another 800 job cuts. The cuts appear to be across the board rather than through specific departments being axed.
The new job losses appear to be a knock-on effect of previous cuts, rather than a new piece of axe-wielding. TechFlash, which broke the news, reports that the latest losses are the result of reorganization. In the past those affected would have been transferred to other positions in the company, but there’s now considerably less room for such maneuvers.
The company had originally announced 5,000 job cuts in January, with some taking effect at the time and others in a second-round of cuts in May. Microsoft says the new cuts will complete that program but will take the total beyond 5,000, though it’s not revealed the exact figure.
This may not be the last of the job cuts, as the firm says it is “continuing to manage our businesses closely, as we always do, can mean additional headcount adjustments.” However, it appears this will be the last major layoffs for the foreseeable future.
To put things into context, with these job losses the firm will have shed a little over five per cent of its total work force. That doesn’t include contract workers, who have in many cases either not had their contract renewed or have had their pay rates reduced.
While it’s clearly not a minor matter to those who’ve lost their jobs, this year’s cuts are a relatively minor dip in an overall trend of rapid expansion. Just ten years ago, Microsoft only employed 30,000 people, a third of the current total.
The job cuts follow recent quarterly figures which showed Microsoft profits dropping almost 20 percent year on year. That said, those results were better than expected and, with profits of $3.57 billion in three months, the company certainly isn’t hurting for money.
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