Microsoft cuts 3,000 jobs, rounding out July plan
Source: Reuters
SEATTLE Wed Oct 29, 2014 2:41pm EDT
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said on Wednesday it cut about 3,000 jobs, effectively completing its plan to reduce its workforce by 18,000, or 14 percent of total staff, announced in July.
The majority of the 18,000 job cuts were in the phone handset business Microsoft acquired from Nokia (NOK1V.HE) earlier this year.
Weve taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000 reductions announced in July," said a Microsoft spokesman. "The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units and many different countries.
He said 638 of Wednesday's cuts were in Microsoft's home state of Washington, where it has its Redmond headquarters.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/29/us-microsoft-employment-idUSKBN0II24A20141029?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
Meanwhile...
Microsoft, frustrated as ever with H-1B policy, considers options
WASHINGTON A two-day conference on high-skilled immigration policy, which attracted researchers from the U.S. and Europe, offered Microsoft an opportunity to voice frustration over U.S. immigration policy.
William Kamela, a senior federal policy lead at Microsoft who detailed the stakes and options his company faces, said the firm will apply for roughly 1,000 H-1B visas in next Aprils application period. And we will get maybe 50% of those, assuming there is another visa lottery, he said. Lotteries are held once the overall 85,000 cap is exceeded.
The companys argument for access to more high-skilled foreign workers seems unaffected by its recent layoffs, even if the number of H-1B workers it seeks next year is potentially smaller than in some previous years. In 2013, Microsoft, for instance, received approval for 1,048 H-1B visas.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2687534/microsoft-frustrated-as-ever-with-h-1b-policy-considers-options.html
antigop
(12,778 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Why is microsoft pressuring the government for more H1-B slots when they're cutting thousands of jobs?
rurallib
(62,406 posts)rpannier
(24,329 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)And guess what. Prices would not come down. Go figure that one out.
elias49
(4,259 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)of the people you fired is FREE. Laying off 18K workers is a shot across the bow of everyone who still has their job at the company. The sell it as "if you're one of the people that helps us pick up the slack, we'll remember you next time layoffs come around". In reality, the people deciding on layoffs are often layers above the people who actually know who was helpful and who wasn't.
ChromeFoundry
(3,270 posts)Who the hell are you trying to bullshit here?
eppur_se_muova
(36,259 posts)cstanleytech
(26,283 posts)request should be denied and in fact maybe their visas should be cut altogether to offset the total number of jobs lost.
groundloop
(11,518 posts)Any company that lays off a single employee should be denied the right to hire H1-B workers for 5 years. Fucking greedy bastards, screw working people so the 1% can have more.
greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)pa28
(6,145 posts)And our leadership continues to act as though stagnating wages for the middle class is some great mystery.
No, it's years and years of deliberate policy and planning on multiple fronts.
Skittles
(153,150 posts)give me a break
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)and no protections. Now, they are importing workers from India to manage workers in and from India. There is a caste system alive and well, and many won't work for Americans directly.
India, China and Mexico - human rights abuses, poverty, slave labor markets.
Wall Street's dream world.