Microsoft has entered its fifth straight month of layoffs in 2025, with just over 40 roles cut at its Redmond headquarters this September, according to the Seattle Times. While smaller than earlier waves — including 6,000 job losses in May and 9,000 in July — the new cuts bring the total to more than 15,000 employees since the company announced an $80 billion AI investment. The latest layoffs affected engineering, product management, and legal positions, and raise questions about whether Microsoft is normalizing monthly job cuts to reshape its workforce around AI.
The company continues to defend the strategy as part of a broader transformation, pointing to declining reliance on certain roles while heavily hiring for AI, machine learning, cloud, and Copilot development. CEO Satya Nadella has described the tension between record profits and the pressure to reduce costs as the “enigma of success.” Microsoft has also rolled out a $4 billion “Elevate” program to reskill workers for the AI era, even as employees face uncertainty and fear of automation replacing traditional jobs.
These workforce changes are not unique to Microsoft — Amazon, Meta, and Google have taken similar steps — but the Redmond company’s consistent monthly layoffs highlight how aggressively it is prioritizing AI and automation over maintaining its existing headcount.
Full article: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/fifth-month-of-layoffs-at-microsoft-whats-driving-the-cuts