REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft is planning another round of layoffs in Redmond, according to state filings. Those filings show 40 workers will be impacted in early October.
It’s the fourth consecutive month that the company has announced layoffs in Washington.
“Organizational and workforce changes are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” wrote a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. “We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”
The company declined to provide specifics on what jobs would be affected.
The number is significantly smaller than recent Microsoft layoff announcements in Washington. In May, for example, the company filed a notice it would be cutting 1,985 jobs in Redmond in July.
The Microsoft filing comes on the heels of a disappointing jobs report. U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department. Economists had expected they would add 115,000.
“Most employers are sort of taking a wait and see attitude,” said Steve Cotton, President of Cotton Wealth Management Associates. “They’re not laying off large numbers, but they’re also not going forward with hiring like normal conditions might warrant.”
Cotton said we’re in the midst of a sort of “perfect storm,” as companies navigate new artificial intelligence technology and trade uncertainty (with some tariff agreements still in flux).
“A lot of the companies that are affected by tariffs are going to be your tech companies like Microsoft and others,” he said.
Microsoft just released its own report examining jobs that could be most threatened by artificial intelligence.
At the top of the list: interpreters and translators, historians, passenger attendants, sales representatives of services, writers and authors.
“If companies are going to figure out increasingly how to use this kind of technology, there will be some casualties in the job force,” Cotton said. “But there will be other jobs, new jobs that will be created as well with AI.”