Bonum Certa Men Certa

Keeping Track of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 09, 2025,
updated Apr 09, 2025

Even his colleague who strangled women was not fired so fast

When our wiki was still a real wiki we kept track of Microsoft layoffs for 15+ years. We abandoned the wiki (PHP back end with a very large database) for reasons explained here quite meticulously just a day ago (the Web is full of malicious, reckless bots; that's the upshot - a dead Web).

So here's a quick roundup of 2025. The dates (in bold) are estimates.

Microsoft started the year by laying off thousands (weeks 2-3 in January), first saying it was based on performance (smokescreen aside), then the media revealing there was another wave (late January), unrelated to workers' relative performance. Then, by February, another wave of layoffs happened, impacting many in "cloud" (early February, to name some signs). That meant 3 waves in 2 months (catching up with December/Christmas after 11 consecutive months of mass layoffs at Microsoft in 2024). On the last day of March the media in Hong Kong revealed that Microsoft had silently shut down whole labs and laid off many staff, probably a month or two earlier (nobody can say for sure when the decision and implementation happened). As evidence it presented photographs of the now-abandoned main building. The Microsoft logo had already been peeled off. Only about a week later, during a period of Microsoft "Feeding Frenzy" in "the media" (sponsored by Microsoft), an additional 2,000 layoffs were revealed (this past Monday). That happened earlier this week, but the "corporate" or "mainstream" media was too busy worshipping Bill Gates and a fake version (or pseudo-history) of Microsoft. Today, as of ~6 hours ago, we learn of another large wave of layoffs in the making. It's likely to be confirmed imminently.

Some hours ago they wrote: "A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment."

So they're not denying it. They could do. They were given the chance. No denial.

Keeping track of all these layoffs and telling them apart is ever more crucial* due to LLM slop, AstroTurfing, revisionism, and search engines getting a lot worse, more so as real news sites go under, only to be replaced by slop plagiarism (such as Quartz).

________

* An associate suggested that we "close the [previous] post with a summary of this year's layoffs to-date," which is generally a good suggestion, but we really want an outline to stand out as its own post, knowing we don't plan to resurrect a wiki or anything non-static. The associate said it's ever more crucial "with the suggestion that the year is still rather fresh" (about 100 days), so 5,000+ Microsoft layoffs would be like 50+ layoffs per day, not counting people leaving, getting "pushed out", or "retiring" (often against their true will). That's also not counting temps and contractors, the "shadow workforce" which lacks rights (Microsoft has no real obligations to them).

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Weaponisation of For-Profit Dockets - Part I: Hiding Behind Lawyers (or Guns for Hire) After Abusing Many People and Even Strangling Women While Microsoft Paid Salaries
This whole thing is very typical of the Microsoft and Bill Gates mindset
From EPO to "MAGA Regime": A Shift Away From Reality to Fake News and False Metrics
Disbelief in itself isn't a bad thing; but the problem is that people are taught to believe rich people in suits more than they believe others
Skype is Officially Dead Today and This is Why People Should Use Free Software Instead (Goodbye, Microsoft)
It's also a good reminder of why people should move to GNU/Linux
'Simple Articles' in MyGemini Just One of Many New 'Sites' in Geminispace
Geminispace has grown fast lately; it's turning 6 next month
 
Links 06/05/2025: LLMs/Chatbots Attract More Scrutiny (Getting Worse Over Time), PwC Has Many Layoffs
Links for the day
Thanks for listening. How can this Morse feed be further improved?
Right now any and all feedback on the audio would be helpful
statCounter: Bing's Market Share Lower Right Now Than It Was When LLM Hype Began (With "Bing Chat")
If anybody gains at Google's expense in search, it is BRICS' alternatives such as Yandex
Gemini Links 06/05/2025: Failure and Proxmox Cluster
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 05, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 05, 2025
Links 05/05/2025: TikTok Still a Romanian Woe/Foe, Signal Perils Showing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: Debian and GNOME and a "Welcome to Simple Articles"
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: US Economy Shrinks, US Presidency Spreading Deepfakes
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: Breaches, Environment, and Conflicts
Links for the day
SUSE the Company Now Uses LLM Slop to 'Write' Its Blog, What Does That Tell Us About SUSE?
There are many giveaways
Richard Stallman is in Alicante Today to Give a Talk, Czech Republic in Two Days (Wednesday)
Of course he can deliver the talk in Spanish
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: XL Bullies and Luddites
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 04, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 04, 2025
Links 04/05/2025: Science, Conflicts, and Monopolies
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Above 7% in Bulgaria, Rising Just Like in Most of Europe
Up to 7%, not counting Chromebooks
Data Shows Largest EU Economies Shifting to GNU/Linux
all-time highs
statCounter Says Only One in 6 Web-Connected Clients in Hungary Are Using Windows, iOS Almost Bigger Than Windows Now
Hungary is a cautionary tale in the world of European (or Russian) politics
Many Reports About Microsoft's Financial Report/Performance Are False, Fake News, Churnalism/Parroting, and LLM Slop (Machine-Generated Lies)
Even if you see a thousand sites saying that Microsoft is performing well ask yourself why the company is rushing to fire tens of thousands of workers and cancelling datacentres
Links 04/05/2025: FCC Turning Into MAGA’s Censoring Machine, SEC Pressured to Delist Chinese Companies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/05/2025: Historical Artifacts and Date Calculations in POSIX Shell
Links for the day
In the First 3 Months of 2025 GAFAM Debt Rose by More Than $14.4 Billion
That's based on their official statements
10-Step Strategy to Get BRETT WILSON LLP ("Gun for Hire"), Microsoft's Serial Strangler, and the Serial Defamer to Compensate Techrights and Tux Machines for Years of SLAPPs and Abusive Litigation
There's no room or capacity for forgiveness here; enablers and protectors of crime need to be scuttled and pay up in full
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 03, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 03, 2025