Microsoft to Axe Over 140 UK Jobs

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be cutting off around 5 per cent of its UK workforce as part of a broad strategy to reduce costs.

The Redmond, Washington based software giant currently has around 2880 employees based in the UK, with a company representative confirming that Microsoft will eliminate around 5 percent of that workforce.

“As part of the plan we announced in January to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, today Microsoft is commencing consultation to remove additional positions across several areas of the company,” said a Microsoft UK spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that the job cuts were needed to “rebalance resources against our priorities in the current climate”.

The move continues a wide cost-cutting initiative for Microsoft. In January the group announced it would be axing some 5,000 jobs from its global workforce in a bid to slash costs by around 1.5bn annually. Back when the announcement was made, Microsoft said that the global reductions would amount to about 2 per cent of the UK workforce.

But in April the company announced poor third-quarter results, with net income at £2.03bn; down 32 per cent from the same period last year.

Now Microsoft may be looking ahead to make further staff cuts on a global basis. In a reportedly leaked email [Reuters] from CEO Steve Ballmer to employees, the Microsoft chief said:

“As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure, including additional job eliminations.”