Microsoft starts second round of layoffs. More to come?

Pink slips are being handed out around Microsoft again today, the second round of a previously-announced intention to trim 5,000 jobs. The question is: will there be more cuts?

In her post on the All About Microsoft blog, Mary Jo Foley notes that Steve Ballmer, in a e-mailed memo to employees, doesn't rule out additional cuts beyond the 5,000 announced in January. He does, however, leave the door open for additional cuts, depending on the economy's impact on the company. In the e-mail, he writes:

With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. We are moving quickly to reach this target in response to consistent feedback from our people and business groups that it’s important to make decisions and reduce uncertainty for employees as quickly as possible, and so that organizations can concentrate their efforts and resources on strategic objectives. As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.

Microsoft officials tell Foley that roughly half the jobs being cut today will be in the U.S. but would not specify which groups were being targeted. In the previous round of cuts, the entertainment and devices team, the business-intelligence unit and other content-creation-focused positions were hit hardest.