Microsoft has begun its second round of layoffs this year, planning to lay off about 9,000 more employees – less than 4% of its total workforce of about 228,000, Bloomberg reports.
According to a Microsoft spokesperson, these layoffs will span different teams, regions, and seniority levels and are aimed at "simplifying processes and reducing layers of management" in order to more effectively respond to dynamic market conditions.
This round of layoffs follows the May layoffs of about 7,000 people, mostly in product and engineering positions. According to Bloomberg, there are also plans to cut some sales staff in July, including among the 45,000 sales and marketing employees, as well as in the Xbox division.
Microsoft traditionally conducts organizational changes and team restructuring at the end of its fiscal year, which ends in June. The company emphasized that such measures are necessary to optimally allocate resources and maintain competitive positions in an uncertain economic situation.