Microsoft is preparing another round of layoffs, with thousands of jobs on the line

Microsoft is preparing a new round of layoffs. The company plans to cut less than 2.5% of its workforce, Business Insider reported in July 2026, citing sources. The Next Web has confirmed the report.

Who will be affected

According to the sources, an official announcement could come as early as the week after the report was published. A 2.5% share sounds modest, but Microsoft employs hundreds of thousands of people, so the cuts translate into thousands of jobs. Sales and consulting teams are the primary targets, but other parts of the company may also be affected.

• The cuts will affect less than 2.5% of Microsoft's workforce
• That means thousands of jobs, despite the modest percentage
• Sales and consulting teams are most at risk
• An official announcement is expected within a week of the Business Insider report

Not the first round of layoffs

Microsoft has cut staff regularly over the past several years as it reshuffles priorities and reallocates budgets internally. In January 2023, the company announced it would lay off about 10,000 employees, one of the largest cuts in Microsoft's history. Since then, it has run targeted rounds of layoffs in individual divisions, including its gaming business after the Activision Blizzard acquisition. The new round continues that pattern: the company periodically reviews headcount on teams that don't work directly on product development.

Why big tech companies are cutting staff

In recent years, similar waves of layoffs have swept across nearly all of big tech. Microsoft isn't alone: other major players are also cutting jobs while pouring billions into data centers, cloud capacity, and AI infrastructure. Companies say these moves are meant to flatten management structures and remove layers between product development and the customer, with the freed-up budget going toward more capital-intensive spending.

What we know about the official response

When Business Insider published its report, the company had not officially commented on the layoff plans. According to the sources, an announcement could come within a week. That's standard practice at large corporations: details of a layoff round are usually kept under wraps until employees are told internally, to prevent premature leaks and panic among staff.

What it means

For large tech companies like Microsoft, it has become routine to cut traditional functions such as sales, consulting, and administrative roles while ramping up investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure. At a company of this size, even a relatively small percentage translates into a significant number of lost jobs, and it signals that the restructuring of the workforce is still underway.