Tech layoffs: Microsoft promises France a voluntary redundancy plan, "only"

Romain Rouillard 18:01 pm, March 22, 2023

Times are tough for tech giants. Weakened by numerous crises in recent years, the sector is going through a delicate period of which the plans for massive redundancies, observed here and there, are the perfect reflection. 12,000 jobs have been cut at Google, 11,000 at Amazon and more than 20,000 within the Meta group, led by Mark Zuckerberg, and which includes Facebook and Instagram. The storm does not spare Microsoft which is preparing to part with 10,000 employees worldwide by the end of March. On Europe 1 this Wednesday, Corine de Bilbao, president of Microsoft France returned to the shocks that shake the tech sector while promising that the social plans, planned in France, would be "only" "voluntary departures".

>>

READ ALSO – Facebook pays $ 725 million to end the Cambridge Analytica scandal

"All tech companies recruited massively at the time of Covid. When I say massively, it is in the order of tens of thousands of people, especially to deploy solutions for hybrid work, "says the leader in La France bouge. A strategy that the sector hoped to sustain at the end of the health crisis. "We have created huge capacities. And then we all hoped that at the end of hybrid work, everything would restart as before and that we would recover all the growth."

Yesterday's needs are no longer today's

A prospect that the global economic situation, shaken by geopolitical events, has darkened. "The recession has arrived. There was an increase in energy prices in Europe, the war in Ukraine and then a recession in all the countries of the world," says Corine de Bilbao. A state of affairs that justifies, according to her, the "workforce adjustments" that are observed within the GAFAM and which intend to "respond to this somewhat particular context". Clearly, yesterday's needs are no longer those of today in the field of new technologies. "At one point, we responded to a very, very strong demand for tech and today, the context is much more uncertain. Companies ask themselves this question twice before committing projects, are very, very cautious, postpone or even cancel projects," notes Corine de Bilbao.

Enough to lead the manager to conduct discussions around a departure plan in France without giving the exact number of employees concerned. "We are in discussions with social partners around departures that would only be voluntary," she certified at the microphone of Elisabeth Assayag. In parallel, the group has launched a platform called "À vous la tech" which aims to "connect people who would not have gone to these professions" and to ensure a better "diversity" within Microsoft France. 1,240 job offers have been published and the company has already received nearly 400 applications according to Corine de Bilbao.