600+ jobs fall in latest Microsoft cuts

The cuts came as Microsoft wrapped up the final round of 18,000 job cuts worldwide.

An additional 638 jobs cut from Microsoft’s Puget Sound workforce is expected to mark the final set of 18,000 worldwide cuts announced over the summer.

The cuts, announced Oct. 29 by the Redmond-based tech giant, were part of 3,000 jobs cut total across the globe. In all, about 2,700 local jobs were cut in three phases that began in July.

“We’ve taken another step that will complete almost all of the 18,000 reductions announced in July,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement released by the company. “The reductions … are spread across many different business units, and many different countries.”

In a blog post by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he states that a majority of the affected workers come from Finnish cellphone maker Nokia, which Microsoft purchased for $7.5 billion in April.

The goal of the layoffs are to produce a slimmer Microsoft with fewer layers of management, aiming for increased productivity, according to Nadella.

The 18,000 layoffs represent about 14 percent of Microsoft’s global workforce.