Microsoft is slowing hiring for its Windows, Office and Teams software groups, Bloomberg reported Thursday, joining a growing list of tech companies that have pumped the brakes in the light of the economic downturn.
All new hires must now be approved by Rajesh Jha, Microsoft's executive vice president, and his leadership team, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. The hiring slowdown is not companywide and is specific to those teams, as they've expanded recently. The spokesperson said that Microsoft will continue to grow its headcount overall this year and "will add additional focus to where those resources go.”
“As Microsoft gets ready for the new fiscal year, it is making sure the right resources are aligned to the right opportunity,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg.
The company's fiscal year starts on July 1.
Microsoft is the latest name on an ever-growing list of major tech companies to have changed their hiring plans, another sign that the slumping stock market is taking a toll. Nvidia announced in its earnings call on Wednesday that the company will slow hiring later this year as a way "to focus our budget on taking care of existing employees as inflation persists." Other companies like Lyft, Snap, Uber, Meta, Salesforce and Coinbase have made similar moves amid tumbling share prices.
Microsoft's share prices are down this year, from around $330 at the beginning of January to around $265 today.
While tech giants have the ability to simply slow down their rapid pace of hiring to adjust to the market, smaller tech companies and startups have had to take more drastic measures. Carvana, Mural, Klarna and Cameo have all laid off a not-insignificant number of employees. Several of those layoffs took place on video calls because workers are largely still remote, which isn't ideal.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE