2,100 Microsoft employees axed worldwide in round two of 18,000-employee layoff

In round two of Microsoft's previously announced planned dismissal of 18,000 employees, the company has fired another 2,100 people worldwide on Thursday.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the 2,100 figure, noting that 747 of those laid off were from Washington state, while the remaining cuts were from other Microsoft locations worldwide.

The cuts were across a variety of teams, as previously rumored. The Microsoft spokesperson declined to specify which teams would bear the impact of the latest round of cuts.

Microsoft officials had said in July that the company would be realigning its worldwide workforce by cutting 18,000 jobs, with 12,500 of those cuts coming from employees, CNet reported.

Microsoft cut 13,000 employees total in the first wave back in July, which included some, but not all, of the former Nokia employees. It also included employees in the Operating Systems Group and just about every other group across the company.

Microsoft is also planning to reduce its dependency on contingent employees by 20 percent as part of its realignment.

As a result of the layoffs, Microsoft officials said that the company would incur pre-tax charges of 1.1 billion dollars to 1.6 billion dollars for severance and related benefits costs and asset related charges over the next four quarters.

With 13,000 cut in round one, and another 2,100 on Thursday, Microsoft still is planning to eliminate another 2,900 jobs by July 2015, the report added.