The series of layoffs in the technology industry continues: On Wednesday, the software company Microsoft announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs.

This corresponds to almost 5 percent of the workforce, which according to the latest information included 221,000 employees.

In the past few weeks and months, several other prominent American technology companies have already cut thousands of jobs.

Facebook's parent company Meta announced that it would be cutting 11,000 jobs, 18,000 jobs at online retailer Amazon and 8,000 at software specialist Salesforce. "These decisions are difficult but necessary," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote to his workforce.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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However, the job cuts at Microsoft may be particularly difficult to convey, because compared to many other technology companies, the group is still in a very solid position and has reported immense profits until recently.

In the most recent reporting quarter, which ended in September, it was $17.6 billion, which was down 14 percent from a year earlier.

Group sales rose 11 percent to $50.1 billion, although there were some weak points.

For example, business with the Windows operating system has shrunk and is suffering from a dramatic drop in demand for personal computers.

There are also concerns about Azure, the cloud computing platform that has been one of the company's flagship products for the past few years.

Their sales are still on the up

Microsoft is in a solid position

The job cuts that have now been announced could be an indication of a further slowdown in business.

Microsoft intends to present its figures for the past quarter next week.

As the group announced on Wednesday, it wants to record an expense of 1.2 billion dollars because of the austerity package that has now been announced.

This item includes severance payments, but also unspecified changes in the “hardware portfolio” and costs for giving up leases because the company is creating “higher density” in its offices.

The job cuts that have now been announced are the largest for the software company since it announced 18,000 job cuts in 2014.

He has also carried out a number of smaller rounds of layoffs in the past year, but has not made the extent of them public.

The renewed cuts come after the company, like many of its competitors, has significantly increased its workforce in the recent past.

In the 2021/2022 financial year (June 30), its workforce grew by around 40,000 employees.

CEO Nadella said Wednesday customers are trying to optimize their information technology spend to "do more with less."

In contrast, in the midst of the corona pandemic, they would have generally accelerated such purchases.