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Microsoft Planning Additional Job Cuts in May

Microsoft's ongoing layoffs are hitting its home turf, with new notices affecting 1,248 people in the Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah, Wash. areas in May.

Microsoft's May job cuts will affect 689 people in that area, starting on May 5, plus 559 people located in Redmond and Bellevue, which will occur on May 26, according to a Fox 13 report. The layoff statistics come from the state's Employment Security Department, which issues "a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alert when companies with 100 or more employees have layoffs or closures," the report noted.

An earlier local Microsoft layoff this year had affected 1,495 employees. When that number gets added to May's total, Microsoft's cuts will have affected about 2,743 people in the area.

These layoffs are likely part of Microsoft's overall 10,000 job cuts that were announced back in January. The layoffs aren't occurring all at once, but are being carried out through the end of calendar-year March 2024. The cuts have been broad, affecting Microsoft's mixed reality teams, GitHub code repository, the LinkedIn careers site and even its pioneering AI ethics team. CEO Satya Nadella had said back in January that the cuts are occurring in reaction to a global economic recession that has already begun in some parts of the world.

Some of Microsoft's latest job cuts appear to be affecting members of the Microsoft Identity and security teams, according to Twitter posts. These cuts in security personnel are occurring even as Microsoft today touted new AI-enabled security tools, such as Microsoft Security Copilot. This emerging new product will ostensibly address a general shortage of security personnel and skills. Microsoft's announcement estimated that the global shortage of security professionals is at about 3.4 million job openings.

Even though Microsoft is making broad cuts across its divisions, it indicated back in January that it is still conducting new hiring for its AI development efforts.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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