Microsoft quietly cuts more employees across various business areas

Microsoft is laying off more employees beyond the nearly 8,000 cut earlier this year, company officials acknowledged on October 22.

The New York Times said about 1,000 employees, representing less than one percent of Microsoft's global workforce, were being cut. When I asked Microsoft for comment, officials wouldn't say how many employees are being let go but did confirm there were "some cuts," in the words of a spokesperson.

"The job reductions were spread across more than one business area and country and reflect adaptations to business needs," that company spokesman told me via an e-mailed statement.

I heard from one contact of mine that Microsoft is cutting "a noticeable" number of contractors this week, including a number involved in finance and legal.

Microsoft announced in July the company was laying off 7,800 employees, mostly involved in the Windows Phone business. Microsoft officials said those cuts would be largely completed by the end of calendar 2015.

Today's cuts aren't part of that wave, according to the New York Times; they are additional and part of Microsoft's continued belt-tightening.

The news of the cuts comes on the day that Microsoft reported its first quarter, fiscal 2016 earnings.