Layoffs Again at Microsoft and Google... Thousands of Jobs Cut!
Layoffs continue to plague the technology sector, with economic uncertainty and the surging use of artificial intelligence (AI) prompting many companies to downsize their workforce. Leading tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have recently laid off hundreds of employees, a development that is causing deep concern among technology professionals.
According to data, since the beginning of this year, approximately 130 tech companies have collectively terminated around 61,000 employees. On May 13, Microsoft laid off as many as 6,000 employees. In a statement, Microsoft’s management explained that these layoffs were necessary to withstand market competition and to achieve its restructuring goals.
Meanwhile, major retail company Walmart is reportedly preparing to lay off around 1,500 employees as part of cost-cutting measures. Google, too, has terminated 200 employees globally this month. The company stated that the decision was part of its efforts to enhance customer services and reorganize its internal structure. Amazon has also let go of 100 employees this month to streamline its operations.
The recent developments at Microsoft lend weight to the growing argument that not only coding jobs but also roles relying heavily on AI are under threat. A report by Bloomberg revealed that 40 percent of the employees recently laid off by Microsoft in Washington State were software engineers. Notably, some of these individuals had only recently been directed by the company to work with AI tools.
Over time, however, the AI systems began to perform these job responsibilities efficiently, leading management to terminate those roles. This has left some engineers disheartened, as they feel they unknowingly trained the very systems that eventually replaced them. Recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella remarked that one-third of the coding tasks in the company are now completed by AI. These developments are casting a shadow over the future of tech professionals.