Tech giant Microsoft will not hike salaries for full-time employees this year and is reducing the budget for bonuses and stock awards, according to an Insider report on Wednesday, citing an internal email by CEO Satya Nadella.
“Last year, we made a significant investment in compensation driven by market conditions and company performance, nearly doubling our global merit budget…this year the economic conditions are very different across many dimensions," the report quoted Nadella saying.
In January, Microsoft said it would let go of 10,000 workers, adding to the tens of thousands of layoffs announced before that across the technology sector as it deals with slowing growth in a turbulent economy.
Microsoft has now squarely placed its focus on generative AI, an area the industry sees as a bright spot.
In collaboration with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which also has received billions of dollars in funding from Microsoft, the tech giant has been infusing the AI tech into its Office products as well as the search engine Bing.
In March 2023, Microsoft conducted a third round of job cuts that impacted employees in roles related to supply chain, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT). According to CRN, the third wave of layoffs are part of the 10,000 job cuts announced by Microsoft earlier this year.
Job cuts were across various levels, functions, teams and geographies, the report said, quoting the company. In Washington state, the tech giant recently sacked 689 employees, according to records.
In February, Microsoft informed Washington State that 617 employees were let go. In the same month, the company notified the state of California that 108 employees were let go.
(With Inputs From Agencies)