14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft last week announced that it’s firing approximately 18,000 workers following the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit, but despite this massive layoff program, the company still needs more than 3,000 high-skilled workers.
It’s no secret that Redmond has complained on several occasions of the “skills shortage,” explaining that it cannot find enough tech workers in the United States. Microsoft has even asked for more H-1B visas in order to hire more immigrants that could fill in the open positions, a move that’s now attracting criticism because of the job cuts it plans to make.
Bill Gates himself called for the issue of more working permits for skilled tech workers, but the company’s co-founder has now come under fire for letting 18,000 employees from divisions across the world go, including the United States.
But despite all these layoffs, Microsoft cannot find the right workers to fill in approximately 3,000 positions and the employees that are expected to leave the company as part of the recently announced plan aren’t right for these jobs.
A H1-B visa grants a person coming from outside the United States with a working permit in the country for a maximum of 3 years. While they do not become citizens of the United States, most H1-B visa holders usually ask authorities to renew the working permit, and Microsoft usually plays a key role in this process.
One of those who blasted Microsoft for asking for more working visas for immigrants despite the 18,000 job cut was Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, who said in a statement that complaining about a skills shortage is impossible when firing so many people.
“Mr. Gates says we need to let more and more people into our country to take those kinds of jobs,” Sessions said. “We need them working first before we bring more people in… I don’t think you can make the argument that we have a labor shortage.”
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, on the other hand, said that this job cut is absolutely mandatory in order to reduce costs following the Nokia acquisition, explaining that every single division would be impacted. Approximately 1,000 employees in Seattle are expected to be fired as part of this campaign, while some factories previously owned by Nokia are said to be closed following Nadella’s announcement.
Of course, the main concern is that the open positions in the United States would actually be filled with workers coming from outside the country, while local authorities are still struggling with high unemployment numbers.