Two years after its last major round of layoffs, Microsoft Corp. today disclosed plans to let go about 6,000 employees.

The affected staffers represent 3% of the company’s workforce. CNBC reported that the cuts will affect staffers across “all levels, teams and geographies.” CBS News learned that the restructuring initiative will place an emphasis on reducing management layers.

About a third of the affected employees work at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Regulatory documents the company filed in the state today indicate that the local job cuts will go into effect on June 12. 

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. “To enhance our efficiency, we will minimize redundancy by streamlining our processes, procedures and roles.”

The development is not unexpected. Following Microsoft’s third-quarter earnings report in April, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood disclosed that the company was focused on “reducing layers with fewer managers.” Fellow tech giants such as Meta Platforms Inc. have announced similar initiatives over the past two years. 

It’s unclear how much Microsoft hopes to save through the layoffs. When the company laid off 10,000 workers in 2023, analysts estimated that the move was poised to save Microsoft about $2.5 billion over the subsequent year. That figure included the $1.2 billion charge the company had logged in connection with the job cuts.

The latest layoffs follow a strong quarter for Microsoft in which topped analyst expectations across the board. The company’s revenue, which grew 13% year-over-year, to $70.07 billion, surpassed the consensus estimate by nearly $2 billion.

Notably, Microsoft’s revenue forecast for the current quarter topped expectations as well. The company estimated that it would end the three months through June 30 with sales of $73.15 billion to $74.25 billion. At the midrange, that’s higher than what analysts polled by London Stock Exchange parent LSEG had predicted. Microsoft’s upbeat forecast hints that the new layoffs are not tied to concerns about near-term business performance.

In January, Microsoft instructed its U.S. consulting business to freeze hiring as part of an effort to cut costs. The unit also set a goal of reducing its “marketing and nonbillable external resource spend” by 35%. It’s unclear whether the consulting business is a focus of the new job cuts.

Also in January, Microsoft laid off an unspecified number of employees across multiple departments. CNBC cited a source as saying that the layoffs, which were described as “performance-based” cuts, affected less than 1% of the company’s workforce at the time. Microsoft had 228,000 employees as of last June.

Photo: Microsoft