- Microsoft set to enact its biggest layoffs in over two years
- 3% will lose their jobs, or 6,000 to 7,000 workers
- Middle managers are at risk
Microsoft has announced significant layoffs, impacting an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 workers globally, or 3% of its current headcount.
It’s believed that the job cuts will affect various departments and regions, including LinkedIn, Xbox, and software engineering teams, with nearly 2,000 roles set to be eliminated from Washington State alone (via CNBC).
As part of the significant shakeup, Microsoft is primarily targeting middle management roles within an initiative to flatten organisational structures – a trend that we’re beginning to see adopted by rival companies as well.
Microsoft streamlines operations with 3% headcount reduction
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a company spokesperson added.
Like the rest of the tech sector, redundancies continue to plague Microsoft, which has made smaller-scale announcements already this year. In 2024, it made a series of mid-sized announcements, including 650, 1,000 and 1,900 workers in three separate instances (via layoffs.fyi), but nothing has quite met the scale of the company’s biggest post-pandemic round of layoffs when, in January 2023, 10,000 workers (5% of the workforce) were sent packing.
Despite strong financial performance, with a revenue of $70.1 billion in the company’s most recent quarter, the landscape is shifting. Microsoft must prepare to prioritize investments in AI and cloud computing, which means other departments are likely to suffer.
CFO Amy Hood also noted that the headcount was already 2% higher than the year previously during the Q3 2025 earnings call. Alluding to the continued growth of AI, Nadella added to the April call: “We processed over 100 trillion tokens this quarter, up 5X year-over-year – including a record 50 trillion tokens last month alone.”
TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft to share more about its decision, but we did not receive an immediate response.
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