Microsoft currently employees about 89,000 people worldwide.

The rumored cuts come at the start of the fiscal year, which isn’t that surprising.  In short, they are right in line with the company’s continuing effort to keep expenses and bloated payrolls in check.  Exactly which product groups or departments will see the most trimming remains unknown, though you can expect that a number of the layoffs may center around Microsoft’s recent decision to scrap its smart phone, the Kin.

Due to weak financial returns in past years and a tumbling stock price, Yahoo laid off some 700 workers last April, following cuts in early 2008 and 2009 totaling almost 2,500.  The cuts represented nearly 5 percent of Yahoo’s labor force.  The company recently surpassed analysts’ expectations, however, showing a surprising increase in profits in the last fiscal quarter.

A part of this initiative is a commitment to hiring fresh college graduates. Dell predicts it will hire 200 engineering and tech employees in the U.S. this year, an increase of 150 from last year. Dell is also looking to hire graduates with finance and marketing degrees. Other companies involved in hiring more college graduates include Accenture, Adobe Systems Inc., Broadcom Corp, CDW LLC, Cisco Systems, eBay Inc., General Electric, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Liberty Mutual Group, Marvell Semiconductor, Microsoft and Yahoo.

Earlier this year, Steve Ballmer, chief executive for Microsoft, stated that the company would be slashing “up to” 5,000 jobs this year. This latest announcement takes them past that initial estimate.

In recent fiscal reports, the company has shown a decrease in profits and revenues.

Some are speculating that the most recent round of layoffs are due to the same mobile tech-related issues the company cited for January cuts.

Seventy-five percent of the games workers laid off since mid-2008 are from North America; the rest are are in Europe and Asia.

The job losses represent a 12% cut in the gaming industry’s US workforce.

At least 13 prominent US game studios have shut down, including Microsoft’s ACES Studio, Ensemble Studio, and 3D Realms.

The software giant announced in January that it would eliminate 5% of its 96,000-strong global workforce.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

That’s in addition to the 1,400 laid off in January.

The company will add up to 3,000 jobs in key areas, such as search technology.

Smith has launched a Microsoft initiative to help the unemployed learn basic technical skills. Microsoft is giving away one million free vouchers for software courses and certification exams for MS products.

“Realignment of the company will help us reassign people, and could allow us to create some 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs,” CFO Kevin Turner told attendees at CeBit, Europe’s biggest technology trade fair.

Turner said while Microsoft was eliminating jobs in some areas, new opportunities would arise at the same time. He reiterated that Microsoft, under pressure to trim costs amid a global recession, would stick to its research budget this year.

“We will invest a record $9 billion in R&D … spend a billion more than last year,” Turner said, adding Internet-based applications will be a major field for Microsoft’s investment.