Microsoft to cut 55 jobs in India, begin second round of layoffs

Software giant Microsoft will lay off about 55 employees in India, which is one per cent of its Indian staff, the chairman of Microsoft India said on Monday.

In its January 2009 financial report, Microsoft announced layoffs of up to 5,000 employees in response to slowing economic activity due to the ongoing financial crisis. The decision on India is part of the plan.

The move is part of its continued effort to realign resources and control expenses in the country, Microsoft said.

One percent of the net rolls across India will be impacted by the realignment. While the impact is across almost all business units, the highest impact is across MSIT and SMSG, the company said in a statement.

In the second round of job-cuts effective on May 5, CEO Steve Ballmer announced it would lay off an additional 3,000 employees. In January, Microsoft had laid off 1,350-1,400 people, largely in the US. The second round layoffs include positions in the US. and in a number of countries around the world.

With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. said Ballmer. As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.