Microsoft Has Laid Off Around 1,000 Of Its Employees

Microsoft has reportedly laid off about 1,000 of its staff across the company, including members on the Xbox and Edge teams.

This report comes from Business Insider (paywalled), later corroborated by The Verge’s Tom Warren. According to Warren, layoffs have been taking place across “Experiences + Devices, Xbox, legal, strategic tech positions, and elsewhere,” noting that it’s less than 1,000, “but some veterans and truly talented teams are impacted.”

Microsoft later provided Warren with a statement, saying, “Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.” Microsoft did not, however, provide any specific numbers in regards to how many employees have been laid off.

Big names that have confirmed to have left the company are veterans of the company like KC Lemson, product manager in the office of the Chief Technology Officer, who’s been at the company for 20-plus years, and Greg Chapman, who’s been with the company for over 10 years.

Chapman was principal architect at Studio Alpha, which was working on cloud-based wargame simulations for military and commercial customers, and tweeted that the entire team had been let go, saying, “Today me and my entire team were laid off. 12 years here at Microsoft, and 25 in game development. Details shortly once the shock wears off,” though his account is currently private (via VGC).

In July, Microsoft announced it intended to lay off less than 1% of its workforce, and also planned to slow hiring (paywalled) due to the risk of a recession. One person that spoke with Insider was apparently hired around a month ago, and has now been laid off.

As of June 30, 2022, Microsoft reported 221,000 employees globally, making the layoffs under 1% of the total number, though it’s still a significant number of people out of employment.