Microsoft’s global headcount dropped to 215,500 people as of Sept. 30, a decline of more than 16,000 from its peak of 232,000 at the end of the 2022 calendar year — significantly exceeding the 10,000 job cuts announced by the company in January.
GeekWire calculated the new employment number based on Microsoft CFO Amy Hood’s statement on the company’s earnings conference call Tuesday that Microsoft’s headcount was down 7% year-over-year. Although the company didn’t give a new employment count as part of the earnings report, we used historical figures and prior disclosures to arrive at the number.
Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts in January, about 5% of its workforce, as part of a wave of tech layoffs across the industry at the time. In July, following the close of its fiscal year, the company confirmed additional layoffs in customer service, support, and sales, without disclosing the size of those cuts at the time.
The latest count does not include employees from Activision-Blizzard, which employed 13,000 people as of December 2022. Microsoft officially acquired the gaming giant Oct. 12, which was after the latest quarter closed.
The cuts are part of a broader effort to keep costs in check as Microsoft looks for a new wave of growth from the cloud and artificial intelligence. Operating expenses rose just 1%, to $13.3 billion, in its quarterly report Tuesday.
For the quarter, the company reported profits of $22.3 billion, up 27%, on revenue of $56.5 billion, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations by both measures.
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