Microsoft Layoffs: 559 Employees Fired From Seattle Offices

Tech giant Microsoft has reportedly laid off 559 personnel from its offices based in Bellevue and Redmond, in Seattle, taking the tally to 2,743 job cuts in the area. Washington State Employment Security Department broke out the news of layoffs on Monday. 

According to Microsoft’s chief executive officer (CEO) Satya Nadella, the layoffs were done to, “align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand.” According to media reports, the downsizing will affect Microsoft’s security operations. 

Nadella cited “lease consolidation” as one of the measures taken for layoff. The measure cited refers that Microsoft might lose its office space in its Redmond campus. In January, Microsoft announced that it won’t be renewing its lease for 26-story City Center Plaza in Bellevue area ending in June 2024. 

As per The Seattle Times, the tech giant constitutes of 2, 21,000 working personnel around the world. Microsoft didn’t reveal the number of its employees based in Seattle, however reports suggest the total number of employees in the state at about 50,000. In January, Nadella commented that the 10,000 layoffs will continue till the end of March. However, he also said that the company will continue to hire in key strategic areas. 

In a blog post, Nadella said that the company will align its cost structure with its revenue and where there is customer demand. “Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today. It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted. The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible,” he wrote.