Microsoft to lay off more employees on top of 10,000 job cuts announced in January

Microsoft has said it is cutting additional jobs, a week after the start of its 2024 financial year, amid a wave of tech industry layoffs.

The company, based in Washington state, whose latest fiscal year ended on June 30, did not disclose the total number of jobs.

However, in a latest filing with the Washington state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system, Microsoft said it was laying off 276 permanent employees in its home state of Washington. Of those, 66 are virtual.

In January, the technology company announced the laying off of 10,000 of its more than 221,000 employees to adjust to changing macroeconomics and to cut overall costs. “Organisational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” Microsoft said in a statement. “We will continue to prioritise and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”

The company's stock, which has jumped more than 38 per cent since the start of the year, surged to trade at $332.01 a share in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Its market value stood at $2.47 trillion.

In April, Microsoft reported a 9 per cent jump in net profit in the March quarter of its 2023 fiscal year, driven by strong cloud business in various markets. Net profit was $18.3 billion, while revenue surged to $52.9 billion, exceeding analysts' expectations of $51.02 billion.

Microsoft is expected to announce its last quarter’s results on July 25.

After boosting hiring during the digital boom at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, technology companies have been cutting jobs amid declining profits and growing fears of a recession in the US.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Yahoo, Zoom, Spotify and Lyft are among the companies to have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.

US-based employers announced 80,089 cuts in May, marking a 287 per cent annual increase and a 20 per cent increase from the 66,995 cuts announced in April, according to a report by research company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In the first five months of this year, US companies have announced plans to cut 417,500 jobs, a 315 per cent annual increase, the report released earlier this month found.