BEAVERTON, Ore. — Prior to yesterday's news from Microsoft that it would have to cut 5,000 jobs including 1,400 this week, First Tech Credit Union was alerted that the layoffs were likely coming.
Microsoft said the economic downturn and slowed IT spending led to 8%, 11% and 6% declines in operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share, respectively, as of Dec. 31. As a result, the company will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs that were slated to end on Jan. 22. The company has more than 94,000 employees worldwide.
Approximately 23,000 of Microsoft's employees are Seattle-based members of $1.9 billion First Tech, said Brooke Van Vleet, executive vice president at the CU.
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"As Microsoft is a global company, at this point we are unsure where the majority of these 5,000 affected employees are located," Van Vleet said. "We had been alerted prior to the official announcement that this would likely be coming, and we're already reaching out to potentially affected members."
The CU has a number of support services for affected employees including workshops on budgeting, tax implications and investment reviews to work through the transition, Van Vleet said. On a case by case basis, the lending and collections group will look at the possibility of modifying loan terms, she added.
Microsoft said the job cuts will reduce the company's annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million.
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