The technology industry has been thriving this year, with soaring stock prices. However, this success has not trickled down to tech employees, as layoffs continue to cast a shadow over the sector.
According to a local government filing in Washington, Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) is set to cut at least 276 jobs. While the specific details are unclear, it appears that the majority of these cuts will affect customer service, support, and sales roles. This comes in addition to the 10,000 job cuts that Microsoft announced earlier this year.
In response to this news, Microsoft shares experienced a slight decline of 0.1% in premarket trading on Monday. Though the pace of tech layoffs has slowed since the wave of mass layoff announcements earlier this year, the trend continues. Niantic, the creator of the popular game Pokemon Go, recently revealed plans to cut around 230 staff members, representing a quarter of its workforce.
Data from Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks planned layoffs in media reports and company releases, shows that over 216,000 tech employees have been laid off so far this year. However, there has been a decline in the number of job cuts announced each month, dropping from a peak of over 89,000 in January to 10,524 in June.
Microsoft is not alone in its cost-cutting efforts. Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG) confirmed that it is eliminating advertising jobs in its Waze mapping service. Back in January, Alphabet announced its plans to reduce its workforce by 12,000 employees.
Despite these developments, Microsoft has not provided an immediate comment on the matter.
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