Microsoft profit drops 12% to $16.4B as revenue grows at its slowest pace in ... trends now

In recent months, a slew of tech companies have announced cost-cutting measures, with Amazon, Apple and Google-parent Alphabet all announcing hiring slowdowns or freezes.

For the tech sector, the pandemic boom has turned to a post-pandemic bust, as rising interest rates batter share prices and inflation cuts into profits.

The sector shed 9,587 jobs in October, the highest monthly total since November 2020, according to data from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas cited by Bloomberg. 

Total job cuts announced by US-based employers jumped 13 percent to 33,843 in October, the highest since February 2021, a report said. 

The Facebook-parent said in November it would cut 13 percent of its workforce, or more than 11,000 employees, in one of the biggest tech layoffs this year as it grapples with a weak advertising market and mounting costs.

Like its peers, Meta aggressively hired during the pandemic to meet a surge in social media usage by stuck-at-home consumers. 

But but the pandemic boom-times have petered out as advertisers and consumers pull the plug on spending in the face of soaring costs and rapidly rising interest rates.

After plunging billions into CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse vision with little to show for it, Meta has been faced with rising costs and shrinking profits.

Meta, once worth more than $1 trillion, is now valued at $256 billion after losing more than 70 percent of its value last year alone. 

'Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I'd expected,' Zuckerberg said in a message to employees, according to Reuters.

'I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.'

On a short call, a red-eyed Zuckerberg addressed employees but took no questions. 

He stuck to a script that closely followed the wording in the morning's blogpost and called the increased investments in e-commerce a 'big mistake in planning.'

Twitter laid off half its workforce across teams ranging from communications and content curation to product and engineering following Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover.

The cutbacks affected roughly 3,700 employees, who learned their fate by email last week. 

However, Bloomberg reported Twitter was reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs, asking them to return.

In January, cloud-based software company Salesforce announced it will layoff 10 percent of its employees or about 8,000 workers.

CEO Marc Benioff cited a rough period for the tech sector as well as over-hiring during COVID-19 leading to the decision. 

Several weeks ago, it quietly laid off hundreds of employees.

'Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition,' a Salesforce spokesperson told CNBC in a statement several weeks ago.

Salesforce had 73,541 employees at the beginning of last year - it is the largest employer in the San Francisco area. 

The company said in an August filing that headcount rose 36 percent in the past year 'to meet the higher demand for services from our customers.' 

Amazon said it would layoff 18,000 corporate and technology jobs what will be the largest job cuts in the company's history.

The move comes as the company reportedly lost $1trillion over the year after its stock plummeted from a high during the pandemic. 

The move comes after the company put a hiring freeze in place, affecting major teams including Prime Video, Alexa and Amazon Fresh.

'We're facing an unusual macroeconomic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about

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