Microsoft Announces 18,000 Layoffs, Or 14% Of Its Labour Force

Originally, it was supposed to be 6,000 layoffs today, but that number somehow tripled to a record 18,000, or 14% of its entire labour force. This is the largest Microsoft (MSFT) has ever done in history, surpassing the nearly 5,800 layoffs it has made in 2009. Why exactly is this important?

From MarketWatch:

This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. Good considering that MSFT can let go of the dead weight that is being plagued by the Nokia Acquisition. Bad considering that MSFT is one of the largest Corporations in America, if not, the world. Layoffs could have negative consequences in overall economic growth. Most of us on the street are rallying on this news as we send more and more people with their bags packed, as this seems to be a rather common trend here. Bad news is great and great news is great... Sort of.

 

if Microsoft doesn't need them, what else can they do but let them go ?

BTW, is your life like Sheen's in the movie Wall Street ? I must admit I have a love/hate thing with Wall Street culture.

 

The layoffs are distressing, indeed, but I don't get how redundancy in the work force helps kick start innovation or keep companies competitive.

 

You don't understand? Our government has been doing it for decades. I'm confident the democrats will no doubt find a way to blame Bush for this layoff,

 

Not sure how much that will hurt American employees. Nokia isn't made in the US and Microsoft bought it to compete with other cell makers and will generally use Microsoft's Windows system. I bought a Nokia smart cell phone about three months ago for only $60.00 It's a Nokia 520 and will do most of what the expensive phones will do. I paired it up with Consumer Cellular for less than $30.00 a month and no contract. I get phone, text and Internet service, which is less than I paid Verizon for a dumb phone. It is so cheap, I don't bother to pay $10.00 extra for insurance as my Brother did, as I could buy a new one in a matter of 6 months of what my Brother is paying. I understand Microsoft will soon rename the phones after Microsoft and drop the Nokia name.

 

Why must everything turn political with you ?

 

Well kinda in his defense, if no politics are involved in this story or thread then this topic is in the incorrect section.

So pick a side and blame the other already.

 

Windows doesn't work well as it is.

 

In light of that I'm somewhat surprised we haven't seen more layoffs up to this point. I've owned and worked on nothing but Macs.

 

More or less. We have fun, but take our fun seriously...

 

I have Windows 8 on my cell phone and any day now Microsoft will upgrade it to Windows 8.1 which I am really waiting on, although I won't upgrade my computer to 8.1. They are different. Windows 8.1 has this and much more on it.

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/features-8-1

 

Uh....because this is a political forum?

I was being facetious, relax

 

Humm...
MSFT -18000
HP -50,000
IBM -13,000
Intel -5% of it's staff
Cisco -5% of it's staff

Seems there's a lot "re-balancing" going on out there. No doubt all part of the Obama "fundamental change" recovery plan.

 

The Obama economy designed in Moscow strikes again.

 

It's just another day in the life of non-union employees. Good luck looking for a new job; I wish them all the best.

 

Windows has been in decline for quite a while. I was talking to one of our IT guys and he said that eventually everyone is going to be running some type of Unix platform. I'm sure Microsoft is starting to feel the effects of this already.

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No, Microsoft has made a lot of mistakes, now they're paying for them. This has a lot more to do with Microsoft than it does the economy.

 

Unions are generally suited for the weak and least talented among us.

They're in the information sector. In this day and age, you don't become so with inferior skills. They'll find new jobs.

 

I wondered how long it would be until you chimed in. I'm sure they'll find new jobs, just that it may not be in their chosen field, perhaps Walmart or one of the fast food restaurants in their area.

Guess I'm part of the weak and least talented among us, but i have had the same job with the same company for over 35 years and most likely make more money than many who post in here. For me that has worked very well; to each their own right?

 

That is always a possibility, or they can go to other informational sectors that is currently expanding.

I don't know. It doesn't necessarily mean that you would make less money if you weren't in the union. Seems like being in a union is a good way to maintain job security, less of way for individuals to increase their value based on their own productivity.

 

Not every union represents workers in factories, mines and other manual labor positions. Some professionals are represented by unions because they don't want to have to worry about job security; for most of us, it's a trade off; we trade some things for job security and rights in the work place. Some move into management positions, others are content to report to work, give a good days work and go home & come back the next day without having to worry too much about losing their job. Stress in jobs can kill; in our line of work, we like to be as stress free as possible and being in the union is part of that equation.

 

i wonder if Microsoft bought Nokia to raid it and destroy it for greed.

And I think the title is misleading. these aren't Microsoft's employees.

 

Actually Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile device business, not Nokia itself.

Nokia's mobile device business are employees of Microsoft.

 

It's nice not to have to worry about losing your job, but the latter has the ability to offset wages. Firms need to be able to make sure workers are productive enough to provide higher wages. Job security allows people to slack without having their wages justified by their overall output. I'm sure its fine for the lazy and weak in the unions, but not for everyone else putting up the effort, which is why I never really understood why union states required everyone who worked at the same firm to be in the same union. Local retailers in the area would be much better off if there wasn't a union. At the wages they are being paid, the money should matter more than the security.

 

You missed Oracle which had a disastrous report last quarter and over all for the year.

 

The Surface 3 could have been great but it ended up flopping with many digital artists because most of us are right-handed and the windows button on the surface 3 is on the right side, so you touch it with your palm as you are drawing, closing the app. And if you disable the button then you can't easily use the tablet. Oops.

That anecdote aside, if this is a trend, then we're looking at another quarter of economic contraction. It'll be funny watching Dana Milbank and other fiberals trying to blame it on warm weather instead of cold weather this time since we're in the summer now.