May proved to be a noteworthy month for the IT sector, highlighted by a series of cyber attacks impacting UK retailers and Microsoft announcing layoffs of over 800 developers. During the ITPro Podcast, news editor Ross Kelly noted the challenges companies, including Microsoft, face despite their strong performance and AI investments. The discussion also touched upon the uncertain future for tech engineers as hiring trends shift, and celebrations were held for Java's 30th birthday, showcasing its enduring popularity in the programming landscape.
"A significant portion of [the redundancies] are in Washington state, in the US, the heartland of Microsoft headquarters. It comes at quite an interesting period for Microsoft - they've been performing well, they're really bullish on their AI investments at the moment. But again, another round of layoffs and it must be really demoralizing for people not only at Microsoft ... but across the tech industry to see this still continuing."
"[For] developers and engineers specifically, I think the writing has been on the wall. We've spoken about this a couple of times over the last year, when you look at big figures in the tech industry like Marc Benioff specifically on agentic AI talking about the fact that they might not have to hire any engineers in the second half of 2025 ... you have to wonder where they're all going to go."
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