Microsoft lays off 559 employees as Seattle-area job cuts top 2,700

San Francisco, March 28

Microsoft has laid off 559 employees from its Bellevue and Redmond in Washington state in the US, bringing the company's total to over 2,700 job cuts in the area.

The layoffs, announced by the Washington State Employment Security Department, hit Microsoft's security operations, reports The Seattle Times.

The company in February announced a prior round of layoffs in which 617 employees in Redmond, Bellevue, and Issaquah were also let go.

Reports said that hundreds of employees faced cuts in security roles under Charlie Bell, a former Amazon Web Services executive who joined Microsoft in 2021.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the latest layoffs "are part of the effort to align our cost structure with our revenue that was announced in January".

To date, tech firms based or with operations in Washington have announced more than 32,000 job cuts.

Earlier this month, Microsoft conducted a third round of job cuts that impacted employees in roles related to supply chain, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).

According to CRN, the third wave of layoffs are part of the 10,000 job cuts announced by Microsoft earlier this year.

Job cuts were across various levels, functions, teams and geographies, the report said, quoting the company.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in January announced that the company will be "making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3 (third quarter)".

The company had more than 220,000 employees and the layoffs affected around 5 per cent of its workforce.