Technology stocks have been performing exceptionally well this year, but unfortunately, the same cannot be said for tech employees. The threat of job cuts continues to hover over the sector, as exemplified by a recent round of layoffs at Microsoft.
According to a government filing in Washington, Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) is set to cut at least 276 jobs. The cuts predominantly target customer service, support, and sales roles, as reported by technology-news website GeekWire. These layoffs are in addition to the 10,000 job cuts that Microsoft had already announced earlier this year.
In response to this news, Microsoft shares dipped by 0.1% in premarket trading on Monday.
Although the pace of job cuts may have slightly slowed down compared to the series of mass layoff announcements earlier in 2023, the reductions have not ceased. Niantic, the videogame maker responsible for Pokemon Go, announced in late June that it would be laying off approximately 230 staff members, which accounts for 25% of its workforce.
According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that keeps track of planned layoffs based on media reports and company releases, over 216,000 tech employees have been laid off this year. However, there has been a steady decline in the number of job cuts reported each month. In January, there were more than 89,000 layoffs, which reduced to 10,524 in June.
It is important to note that Microsoft is not the only major tech company implementing job cuts. Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG) recently confirmed to CNBC that it would be eliminating advertising positions in its Waze mapping service. In January, Alphabet had announced plans to cut 12,000 workers.
Microsoft has not yet responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.
By Adam Clark
