{"id":85751,"date":"2026-07-10T15:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85751"},"modified":"2026-07-10T16:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:36:52","slug":"microsoft-refutes-notion-that-foreign-worker-visas-were-behind-mass-xbox-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85751","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Refutes Notion That Foreign-Worker Visas Were Behind Mass Xbox Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since news broke of Microsoft&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/xbox-layoffs-studio-closures-and-spin-offs-everything-announced-today\/#:~:text=Microsoft%20has%20officially%20announced%20that,a%20%E2%80%9Crestructuring%E2%80%9D%20process%20at%20Xbox.\" id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/xbox-layoffs-studio-closures-and-spin-offs-everything-announced-today\/#:~:text=Microsoft%20has%20officially%20announced%20that,a%20%E2%80%9Crestructuring%E2%80%9D%20process%20at%20Xbox.\">recent round of mass layoffs<\/a>&#8211;which affected 1,600 people immediately and will reach double that number over the next year&#8211;a number of reports have claimed that mass approvals of foreign-worker visas were behind the decision. Now, Microsoft communications lead Frank X. Shaw has refuted what he calls &#8220;bad information.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Twitter post, Shaw said that while there are Microsoft workers using H-1B visas, they are &#8220;not specific to Xbox and represent a small percentage of Microsoft&#8217;s overall workforce. And the majority of the roles impacted were not American roles.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>  https:\/\/twitter.com\/fxshaw\/status\/2075637298046374135  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Recent workforce changes were made to restructure the Xbox business because it is not healthy. They were not made to replace employees with foreign workers,&#8221; Shaw said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shaw&#8217;s comments come after multiple conservative news outlets pointed out that Microsoft was approved for more than 2,200 H-1B visas this year. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/fury-erupts-us-brand-fires-1600-employees-after-securing-thousands-foreign-worker-visas\" id=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/fury-erupts-us-brand-fires-1600-employees-after-securing-thousands-foreign-worker-visas\">Fox News<\/a> was told by Microsoft prior to publishing its story that H-1B employees were also among those affected by the layoffs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent Xbox layoffs are among the biggest we&#8217;ve ever seen in the gaming industry. Alongside losing roughly 20% of the Xbox workforce, Microsoft also made the decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since news broke of Microsoft&#8217;s recent round of mass layoffs&#8211;which affected 1,600 people immediately and will reach double that number over the next year&#8211;a number of reports have claimed that mass approvals of foreign-worker visas were behind the decision. Now, Microsoft communications lead Frank X. Shaw has refuted what he calls &#8220;bad information.&#8221; In a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":85753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85754,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85751\/revisions\/85754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}