More Microsoft staffers shown the door in Round 3 of job cuts

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Microsoft sent another 3,000 staffers packing on Wednesday, after the third round of layoffs in CEO Satya Nadella's multi-phase restructuring program.

The Seattle Times reports that 638 employees in and around Microsoft's Puget Sound headquarters lost their jobs, with the remainder coming from various sites around the globe.

By our count, this batch of pink slips brings the total number close to the 18,000 job cuts that Nadella cited when he first announced the restructuring measures in July, a figure that represented about 14 per cent of Redmond's staff at the time.

Nadella last swung his axe in September, at which point The Reg estimated the severed-headcount at 15,100. Another 3,000 layoffs would actually bring the total just over the 18,000 figure – but what's a few more bods in the unemployment lines, give or take?

The bulk of the layoffs so far have reportedly been related to Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business and are coming from overseas facilities where the Finnish firm assembled its handsets and tablets.

Still, some of the cuts have hit home. In the most recent round before Wednesday's cuts, Nadella broke up Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group and closed the company's Silicon Valley research lab.

Microsoft confirmed to The Reg via email that it had issued more layoff notices on Wednesday, though it declined to cite actual numbers, and the nature of the positions that were eliminated in and around Redmond wasn't clear.

"We've taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000 reductions announced in July," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units, and many different countries."

As distressing as it may be to see so many people at one company lose their jobs, however, the process hasn't been entirely painless for Microsoft, either. In its most recent earnings report, the software giant said it had already spent $1.14bn on restructuring costs. Expect more where that came from next quarter, once Redmond has issued a few thousand more severance packages. ®

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