US IT giant Microsoft says it is cutting 10,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce, amid lower demand and economic slowdowns in some parts of the world.

CEO Satya Nadella announced the layoffs on the company's website on Wednesday.

Nadella said Microsoft is seeing customers "optimize their digital spend to do more with less" after they spent more during the pandemic. He also cited downturns of the economy in some parts of the world.

The New York Times says the downsizing is the company's largest in about eight years.

Nadella said the company will spend 1.2 billion dollars for severance pay and other costs related to the job cuts.

Since November, major IT companies in the US have announced layoffs. Amazon said it would cut more than 18,000 workers, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is to shed over 11,000 jobs and Salesforce announced a reduction of about 8,000 posts.