Microsoft Confirms Job Cuts Based On Performance

Microsoft is cutting its workforce again, but this time stated it is axing people based on their job performance at the tech giant.

CNBC reported that Microsoft has confirmed to it that it is cutting a small percentage of jobs across departments, based on performance. At the time of writing, there is no indication of how many actual jobs are being terminated.

“At Microsoft we focus on high-performance talent,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC on Wednesday. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action.”

Recent job cuts

However, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the job cuts will affect less than 1 percent of employees.

Microsoft had 228,000 employees at the end of June, so 1 percent of that number could equate to 2,280 positions.

However, this latest job cuts seem to be much less than previous downsizing efforts at the software and cloud giant, which resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of roles.

For example in September 2024 Microsoft had axed 650 staff at Microsoft Gaming.

Prior to that in June 2024 Microsoft cut hundreds of jobs in Azure cloud business, affecting its telecoms and space teams.

Then in January 2024, Microsoft’s gaming unit shed 1,900 jobs to reduce overlap after Microsoft completed its protracted $75 billion (£59bn) acquisition of Activision Blizzard in November 2023.

2022/2023 job losses

But the real large scale job losses at Microsoft came during 2022 and 2023, as the world emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In May 2022 a senior Microsoft executive had warned the management of the Windows and Office divisions to adopt a more conservative approach to hiring new people.

Then in early July 2022 Microsoft cut less than 1 percent of jobs as part of an annual structural adjustment, which it said was routinely carried out every summer.

Later that same month Microsoft began withdrawing job openings in its Azure and security divisions, as its hiring slowdown extended to other divisions.

Then in October 2022 Microsoft confirmed a second round of job losses (reportedly under 1,000 jobs) across multiple divisions but did not confirm the actual numbers let go.

Then in January 2023 Microsoft said it was axing 10,000 jobs, or 5 percent of the workforce, and then in July 2023 confirmed further job losses in its sales and customer service roles.