Microsoft to scale down hiring by 50%

REDMOND: Microsoft Corp. expects hiring will slow in its current fiscal year

to about half of last year's level, the software giant's Chief Operating Officer

Rick Belluzzo said on Thursday.

Microsoft, which makes the Windows operating system, would hire more than

4,000 people in fiscal 2002, which ends next June 30, Belluzzo told an annual

gathering of Wall Street analysts at the company's Redmond, Washington

headquarters.

Belluzzo however, did not elaborate, and Microsoft did not immediately have

data on exact hiring levels for the last fiscal year. The projected 4,000 hires

would be net additions that did not include replacement hires for employees who

would leave, a company spokesman said.

In April, Belluzzo said that, including replacements, Microsoft expected to

hire up to 6,500 people in fiscal 2002. A firm spokesman said there has been no

change in hiring expectations for the current year.

Return to Redmond



Microsoft has employed about 43,900 people worldwide at the end of March,
according to company data. While the company earlier faced high attrition as

many employees left to join the dot-com boom, the recent Internet bust has once

again made the No 1 software maker's stability attractive to job-seekers,

Belluzzo said.

Belluzzo and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates highlighted research and

development, which will have a $5.3 billion budget this year, as a key area for

adding employees. Faced with slowing growth for its key products, Microsoft is

busy working on new fee-based Web services as part of its .NET strategy to

expand its reach beyond the desktop computer.

"Hiring was tougher for a period then (during the dot-com boom) than it

was at any other part in our history," Gates told the gathering.

"This has turned around 180 degrees. We will be able to fully hire the

people we need for our R&D challenges. We're not scaling back our R&D

initiatives at all," Gates said. "We are increasing R&D head count

this year, but as a percentage, more moderately than in years past."

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.