By WINSTON CHAI

MICROSOFT'S Singapore operations, along with its other subsidiaries in the South-east Asia region, will largely be spared from a first round of job cuts which will see the axing of 1,400 positions globally.

The planned reductions, to be executed immediately, is the precursor to subsequent waves of retrenchment which will see Microsoft shedding 5,000 jobs or nearly 5 per cent of its global workforce over the next 18 months.

While the cuts are the most severe in its 34-year history, the silver lining for Microsoft employees in Asia is that only a handful of jobs are on the line.

'I can confirm that the number of employees affected by the immediate job eliminations is a single-digit number across Asia-Pacific, excluding China, India and Japan,' a company spokeswoman told BizIT.

'I can also confirm that there is no impact to the Microsoft Singapore subsidiary as a result of the immediate job eliminations,' she added.

A check on some recruitment sites and the Microsoft job portal revealed that the world's largest software company is in fact still recruiting for various local positions. Vacancies include a 'business group lead' for Microsoft Singapore, and an applications consultant for clinical systems.

Singapore currently plays host to over 600 Microsoft employees across three major divisions - Microsoft Singapore, Microsoft APAC (Asia-Pacific) Regional HQ, and Microsoft Asia-Pacific.

While the company has been reaping bustling sales as a result of growing computer penetration in the last few years, its fortunes are starting to take a turn for the worse with PC sales being hit because of the economic downturn.

In Asia, PC shipment growth stalled to a six-year low in the last quarter of 2008, crimping sales for Microsoft's Windows PC operating system. According to estimates from technology research firm Gartner Inc, computer shipments in Asia grew a mere 1.8 per cent from a year earlier to hit 19.5 million units for the three months ended Dec 31.

This article was first published in The Business Times on January 26, 2009.