Microsoft was hit by a second round of layoff on Thursday affecting another 2,100 employees as part of the company’s planned 18,000 job cuts announced earlier in July, in an aim to reduce its dependency on “contingent” (non full-time) employees by 20 percent.
As part of a total of 2,100 layoffs, the software giant is cutting 160 jobs in California, another 747 in the Seattle area with the rest to be spread across its global operations, a Microsoft spokesperson said.
The Redmond also confirmed the closure of Microsoft Research lab at the company’s campus in Mountain View. Founded in 2001, Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Research Lab, located in Mountain View, California, was primarily working on new product ideas and distributed computing research and privacy technology.
Microsoft said that the move will involve loss of 50 jobs and will see the Research Lab transfer its US work to the main campus in Redmond, Washington, and in offices in New York and Boston.
The first round of layoff took place in July when 13,000 employees were made to leave the company. Those included some of the former Nokia employees as well as employees from the Operating Systems Group and every other group across the company.
Considering Microsoft’s 18,000 job cut plan, with 13,000 job cut in the first round, and another 2,100 on Thursday, the Redmond is expected to announce the remaining 2,900 more layoffs over the next 9 month period.
