Skip to main content

How big are Microsoft's layoffs?

How big are Microsoft's layoffs?

/

Even compared to its peers, today's cutbacks are pretty deep

Share this story

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced today that the company will be laying off 18,000 employees over the next year, the largest round of cutbacks in Microsoft's history. For anyone who loses their job, that's painful news — but in the context of big layoffs at some of Redmond's peers, Nadella's move is also quite severe. We stacked up the job cuts that have taken place at Microsoft, which were principally targeting the company's Mobile division and the employees it took on when it acquired Nokia. We compared that to the cuts made by Google across Motorola Mobility and layoffs at HP, Intel, and BlackBerry since 2011. In terms of raw numbers, Microsoft's announcement is the second largest — and it's also the second-highest percentage of overall workforce after BlackBerry. While it's not included in this chart, the worst off in terms of total cuts would have to be Nokia, which has let go a total of more than 50,000 employees since Stephen Elop took over in September of 2010.