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Microsoft responds to JD Vance’s criticism on H-1B: Our H-1B applications are …

Editorial Now July 30, 2025

Vice President JD Vance recently slammed US tech companies for laying off American workers and prioritizing H-1B visa workers. “I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America,’” Vance said at a bipartisan event last week. Microsoft has now responded to the VP’s remarks. While Vance did not name any company in his statement, the 9,000 figure directly related to Microsoft’s recent job cuts where the company laid off employees roughly 4% workforce (approx. 9,000) in multiple departments and divisions.In a statement to CFO Dive, a Microsoft spokesperson said that layoffs at the tech giant are not related to the visa program, adding that no new employees are coming to the US. “Our H-1B applications are in no way related to the recent job eliminations in part because employees on H-1B’s also lost their roles. In the past 12 months, 78% of the petitions we filed were extensions for existing employees and not new employees coming to the US,” the spokesperson said.

What JD Vance said on tech layoffs

Speaking at bipartisan event co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, the vice president said: “You see some big tech companies where they’ll lay off 9,000 workers, and then they’ll apply for a bunch of overseas visas. And I sort of wonder; that doesn’t totally make sense to me”. “That displacement and that math worries me a bit. And what the president has said, he said very clearly: We want the very best and the brightest to make America their home. We want them to build great companies and so forth,” he said.“But I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America.’ That’s a bulls**t story,” Vance added.

Job cuts at Microsoft in 2025

Microsoft has held multiple rounds of layoffs this year. In May, the 50-year-old software giant slashed 6,000 jobs, followed by an additional 305 cuts in June. Earlier this month, the company announced another major round of layoffs, impacting around 9,000 employees — roughly 4% of its global workforce. The move marked the company’s second largest round of job cuts in 2025 and spanned across departments, locations, and seniority levels, with a significant number affecting its Xbox gaming division. Studios like King, ZeniMax, and Turn 10 are among those hit, and projects like Perfect Dark and Everwild have been scrapped.

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