New Delhi: Microsoft has started its new fiscal year with yet another big round of layoffs. On Wednesday, the company confirmed plans to cut around 9,000 jobs across various departments. This makes it one of the largest job cuts since early 2023.

The tech giant, which employed over 2.28 lakh people globally as of June 2024, is reducing about 4% of its workforce. These layoffs follow two earlier rounds in May and June this year, where over 6,000 workers were let go. The total job losses at Microsoft in 2025 have now crossed 15,000.

Multiple divisions affected, Xbox hit again

Microsoft hasn’t shared which departments are losing the most people. But reports from Bloomberg and The Verge say that sales, marketing, and gaming teams are heavily impacted. Xbox boss Phil Spencer reportedly told employees that the gaming division will see cuts and changes.

According to Spencer, the move will “end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”

That last line sounds familiar. In May, Microsoft had said it wanted to “flatten management layers” while justifying its job cuts. But Washington state data showed that only about 17% of those layoffs affected managers, according to The Seattle Times.

Latest layoffs nearly match 2023 cuts

Last year in January, Microsoft had made headlines by letting go of 10,000 workers. This week’s move is just a thousand short of that figure. Put together, the job losses in 2025 have already gone past 15,000, suggesting this might be Microsoft’s toughest restructuring since the pandemic era.

Around 2,300 of the earlier layoffs this year happened in Washington state. It’s unclear how many of the 9,000 affected in this round are based at the company’s Redmond headquarters.

Microsoft hasn’t offered any severance package details in this round publicly. Based on previous layoff rounds, impacted employees are usually offered salary continuation, career transition help, and access to healthcare for a limited period.

A pattern of job cuts in big tech

Microsoft’s ongoing layoffs are part of a wider trend across big tech. Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google have all trimmed teams since late 2022. Cost pressure, AI transitions, and leadership restructuring have played a role in how these firms are reshaping their workforce.

With its focus shifting towards AI and cloud, Microsoft is likely trying to rebalance its resources. But for the thousands who lost their jobs this year, this restructuring isn’t just a business story.