{"id":163395,"date":"2025-11-28T00:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T00:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163395\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T00:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T00:48:18","slug":"microsoft-ireland-has-cut-250-jobs-since-last-summer-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163395\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Ireland has cut 250 jobs since last summer \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft <\/a>cut about 250 jobs in Ireland as part of cost control measures announced in July, but the company hopes to grow its headcount here again in the coming years, the company\u2019s site leader in Ireland has said.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s latest round of job cuts across its global operations looked to shed about 9,000 workers globally \u2013 about 4 per cent of its workforce \u2013 in a bid to control costs.<\/p>\n

The software company declined to comment at the time on how many jobs would be affected in Ireland, where it employs some 6,400 people, but the figure was estimated to be about 250 people on the basis the 4 per cent cut would be applied in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Taking questions from The Irish Times this week as the company marked 40 years of operations here, Microsoft Ireland site leader James O\u2019Connor confirmed the figure was \u201caccurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at the end of that process,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly in terms of the changes that were rolled out across the company earlier this year. That process has been completed. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there are always tough decisions, but there is also the broader evolution in terms of role changes.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Microsoft has contributed \u20ac4.9bn to Irish economy over past year, report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cOur chief executive came out recently and talked about the need to evolve and grow our headcount over the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether that would mean adding jobs in Ireland, he said: \u201cI\u2019m not going to commit to that now, but we are always making sure Ireland is strongly positioned within the company. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I come back to the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) <\/a>and digital skilling in the economy here, continuing to make sure we are competitive on a global level. <\/p>\n

\"\"If Irish households are so rich, why does it feel like an illusion?<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland is the most critical and most strategic hub for Microsoft outside of our headquarters in Seattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Connor said he did not foresee AI leading to mass displacement in the Irish job market. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about AI is it does help us to optimise maybe mundane tasks and free up more capacity for innovation, and for greater impact in what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough that, you obviously have role changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have roles that evolve and roles that are maybe impacted. But also, what we\u2019re seeing right now is a lot of new roles and career opportunities that we wouldn\u2019t have even thought about a year ago emerging with AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe added just over 500 core roles in research and development about a year ago. All of them, and all of our software engineers here, are working on core technology and core engineering, all centred on AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had confidence in Ireland\u2019s workforce to upskill as AI moves more and more into the workplace. The company has announced an investment of \u20ac4 million in AI skilling initiatives here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many reasons why we\u2019ve made significant investments over the years in Ireland, but one of the key things is talent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only can we get great technical skills and engineering capabilities, but our talent has really differentiated us around adaptability, embracing change, driving transformation, and working through complexity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a real differentiator for our broad workforce here in Ireland. We want to make sure we skill them up, and we want to make sure we\u2019re doing that in the broader ecosystem as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft cut about 250 jobs in Ireland as part of cost control measures announced in July, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[218,61,60,1071,43],"class_list":["post-163395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-microsoft","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}