Microsoft has announced plans to lay off approximately 6,000 employees, amounting to 3% of its global workforce. This reduction will affect staff across various levels and departments worldwide as part of a strategic organisational restructuring aimed at better positioning the company in a dynamic market.
“We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a company spokesperson told CNBC.
Despite these layoffs, Microsoft reported robust financial results for the quarter ending 31 March 2025, achieving a net income of $25.8bn, an 18% year-on-year increase. The company’s total revenue rose by 13% to $70.1bn, driven by heightened demand for AI-based solutions and ongoing adoption of cloud infrastructure by enterprises.
At the end of June 2024, Microsoft’s global workforce numbered 228,000 employees. Specifically, Washington state announced that 1,985 jobs would be eliminated from Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters, including 1,510 office-based roles. This constitutes Microsoft’s most significant round of layoffs since it cut 10,000 positions in 2023. Unlike the performance-related layoffs earlier this year in January, these new redundancies aim to streamline management layers and are not linked to individual performance.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously outlined plans to revise sales execution strategies due to slower-than-expected growth in Azure cloud revenue not related to AI advancements. Nadella highlighted the importance of adapting incentives and strategies during platform transitions, questioning, “How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market?”
Despite the workforce reductions, Microsoft shares ended trading on Monday at $449.26, marking the highest price of the year. This follows a record close of $467.56 recorded in July 2024.
Previous layoff initiatives by Microsoft
Earlier this year, in January 2025, Microsoft confirmed smaller-scale layoffs due to performance concerns affecting less than 1% of its workforce. These cuts reportedly spanned multiple departments as part of efforts to optimise talent and enhance overall performance. Previous rounds of layoffs included nearly 2,000 job cuts within its gaming division following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and approximately 1,000 roles in its Azure cloud unit as part of broader cost-management initiatives.
These job reductions reflect wider trends within the tech industry. TrueUp’s The Tech Layoff Tracker reported that there have been 292 layoffs affecting 71,045 employees at tech companies so far this year, with an average impact on 530 people per day. In contrast, the previous year saw 1,115 layoffs that affected over 238,461 individuals across various tech firms. Last week, Japanese tech giant Panasonic announced plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 10,000 positions, representing about 4% of its total employees. The majority of these job cuts will occur during the fiscal year that commenced in April, with the reductions evenly split between Japan and international locations.
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