Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees, and the severance pay was as high as 800 million U.S. dollars, with an average compensation of 540,000 yuan per person.

Earlier on January 18, Microsoft announced that in response to slowing revenue growth,The company will cut 10,000 jobs by March 31.

Microsoft’s fiscal year 2023 Q2 financial report released today shows that Microsoft recorded an additional expense of US$1.2 billion in the second fiscal year because the company decided to lay off 10,000 employees, improve its hardware lineup, and integrate rental facilities.

This cost includes 800 million US dollars in employee severance pay, and an average of 540,000 yuan per laid-off employee.

The financial report shows that Microsoft’s fiscal year 2023 Q2 revenue was US$52.7 billion (about 357.3 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 2%; net profit was US$16.4 billion (about 111.2 billion yuan), a year-on-year decline of 12%.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Hood said on a conference call with analysts that business was weak in December, including slower growth in consumption of Azure cloud services. New business growth in Microsoft 365 productivity software subscriptions, Windows business products, and enterprise mobility and security products that month also fell short of management expectations.

Not only Microsoft has laid off employees, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, and Facebook parent company Meta have recently announced large-scale layoffs.