Microsoft layoffs: A look back into a terrible time for tech industry

Microsoft is among the tech giants that laid off thousands of its employees across different sectors as the year 2024 cemented itself as an unforgiving year for the tech industry.

A total of over 143,000 employees from across companies have lost their jobs this year alone, according to aggregator site Layoffs.fyi. Looking back, the Redmond tech giant’s layoffs happened across different sectors from gaming, especially with the Activision Blizzard acquisition and leadership changes.

At least four important layoffs happened over at Microsoft this year so far. The company kicked off this year by laying off 1,900 employees in its gaming division after the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Then, in May, several Bethesda game development studios were axed, although Tango Gameworks was later revived by PUBG publisher Krafton.

Then, in June, Microsoft laid off more employees in the Azure department despite successes in AI and cloud. That’s the third round already, in which around 1,500 were reportedly affected. And in September, a few more hundred in the gaming division (corporate and support roles) also had their jobs cut.

But despite that, a report by NBC last month revealed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has reportedly received a pay raise of over $30 million for the 2024 fiscal year, bringing his total compensation to $79.1 million, up from $48.5 million the previous year.

His cash incentive portion was still reduced by $5.2 million after he requested a reduction due to security incidents that drew harsh words from the White House, including breaches by China and Russia.

Ouch.