Microsoft says it’s chopping 1000’s of jobs in its second spherical of mass layoffs in current months.
Whereas the corporate did not specify the precise quantity of people that could be dropping their jobs, it did say it was lower than 4 per cent of its complete workforce, which might be about 9,000 individuals at most. (The corporate employed 228,000 individuals as of June 2024.)
Microsoft additionally didn’t immediately reply to a query from CBC Information about what number of Canadian jobs have been misplaced because of the layoffs, however mentioned the cuts have been taking place throughout completely different groups and areas.
Nevertheless, Carmel Smyth, president of the Canadian Media Guild, mentioned the union does not consider any of the 120 workers it represents at Montreal-based Bethesda Recreation Studios (owned by Microsoft) will likely be impacted. She additionally says the cuts will probably have an effect on Microsoft’s U.S. studios for probably the most half, however added “any downsizing of employees on this worthwhile and booming business is extremely disappointing.” (The Canadian Media Guild additionally represents CBC workers, and Smyth is on go away from her position as a producer with the CBC).
Microsoft mentioned the cuts will have an effect on a number of groups all over the world, together with its gross sales division and its Xbox online game enterprise. On the entire, the gaming business has seen job losses in recent times.
“We proceed to implement organizational adjustments essential to finest place the corporate for achievement in a dynamic market,” a spokesperson mentioned in an e mail.
WATCH | Tons of laid off in Canadian online game business:
Tons of laid off in Canadian online game business
Final yr noticed a whole lot of layoffs in Canada’s online game business, a pattern that is anticipated to proceed in 2024, which some say is a cause for online game employees to unionize.
The reductions come after Microsoft first laid off some 6,000 workers in Could. It additionally lower one other 300 employees based mostly out of its Redmond, Wash., headquarters in June. And in 2023, it laid off 10,000 individuals, or 5 per cent of its complete workforce.
The cuts introduced in Could have been closely centered in software program engineering and product administration roles, in accordance with lists the corporate despatched to employment businesses in Washington and California — the place the cuts additionally hit Microsoft places of work within the San Francisco Bay Space.
The corporate has repeatedly mentioned its current layoffs are a part of a push to trim its administration layers, however the Could give attention to software program engineering has fuelled worries about how the corporate’s personal AI code-writing merchandise might cut back the variety of individuals want for these jobs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned earlier this yr that “possibly 20, 30 per cent of the code” for a few of Microsoft’s coding tasks “are in all probability all written by software program.”
