Microsoft has announced that due to decreased earnings, it will cut up to 5,000 jobs, 5.5% of its total workforce, over the next 18 months. This round of job cuts will be the largest and most sweeping in Microsoft’s history.

The software giant’s net profit fell by 11 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year when compared with the same quarter from a year ago.

Regarding the job cuts, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated, “While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach. We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”

Most of the job cuts are expected to come in Microsoft’s research & development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT departments.

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