Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman, said Wednesday the cuts are being made in offices around the globe. He would not say what specific product groups or job types are affected.

Gellos also says Microsoft had already let nearly all of the 5,000 go, in what was the company's first-ever widespread layoffs.

Microsoft also said in January it would continue to hire in key areas such as Web search. The software maker, based in Redmond, Wash., employed about 94,000 people as of the end of December 2008. At the end of September, about 91,000 people worked for Microsoft, indicating the company has added 2,000 jobs this year.