The hiring free fall at Microsoft ($MSFT) doesn't look to be quite over yet, as the number of openings at the Redmond tech giant has now dropped by more than 60% since March. That's the single largest job-listing decline for the company in at least three years, or since we began tracking hiring activity at the company. Just last month, reported an early 46% drop in hiring activity. But since then, the cutbacks have continued.

By March 22, 2020 — just two months ago — Microsoft listed 5,580 jobs on its career recruiting websites. As of yesterday, that number had dropped to 2,142, or just 38% the number of jobs in early 2020. 

The massive hiring slowdown comes as other tech companies like Facebook and Twitter have announced plans to allow extant workers to work remotely indefinitely. Just yesterday, Facebook announced that it would drum up remote hiring, allowing new hires to top for work-from-home conditions.

So far, Microsoft hasn't weighed in on the work-from-home movement, and given the drop in new job listings, it may be holding out.

Hiring slowdowns at Microsoft appear to be across the board, both in terms of job types and locations. Engineering job listings, for instance, are down 54% since March, slightly less than the overall 60% trend.

There is some reported silver lining, however. Just this week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced that Microsoft would be opening a new 1,500-employee office in Atlanta.

It's unclear when the new Atlanta office will open. So far, however, Microsoft hasn't spun up hiring in the area: the company lists just 15 openings there, down from 95 at the end of March.

Given uncertainly with the Coronavirus pandemic's timeline along with other tech companies moving to hire remotely, it is likely that Microsoft will get on board, at least with highly-skilled engineering jobs that can become immediate contributors.

In just the past few days, several jobs with "Other" as their locations have appeared on Microsoft's careers sites. This could be an early indication that the company is assessing candidates regardless of location.

Hiring at Microsoft's most-common locations is down across the board, with openings in India seeing perhaps the largest drop in order of magnitude. Meanwhile, at the company's Redmond headquarters, openings have been cut by more than half, from 2,380 openings in March to 1,060 as of this week.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

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