Microsoft confirms 5 per cent of UK jobs to go

Microsoft: "We need to rebalance resources against our priorities"

Microsoft has confirmed it will eliminate about five per cent of its UK workforce as part of a group-wide spending review.

The news follow the firm’s announcement in January that it would shed up to 5,000 jobs worldwide in a bid to reduce costs.

The cull will affect more than 140 jobs out of Microsoft’s 2,880 UK-based workforce in the areas of IT, research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal and human resources.

“As part of the plan we announced in January to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, today Microsoft is commencing consultation to remove additional positions across several areas of the company," said a Microsoft spokesman.

“While job reductions are always difficult, we need to rebalance resources against our priorities in the current climate and we will continue to evaluate our business to ensure that our investments are aligned to current and future revenue opportunities,” he said.

In its initial announcement earlier this year, the company said the redundancies would affect less than two per cent of its UK staff.

At the time, it was also reported that Microsoft had laid off staff using read-only emails as opposed to traditional notices and the process was not preceded by any management or HR meetings.

Last month, Microsoft posted gloomy sales results as global PC markets suffer in the recession. Third-quarter revenue of £9.3bn was down six per cent on the same period last year and net income of £2.03bn was down 32 per cent.