As expected, Microsoft today is proceeding with job cuts in targeted areas of its global workforce, delivering layoff notices in selected groups as part of the strategic realignment that the company traditionally makes at the beginning of its fiscal year. We haven't been able to get a precise count, but the numbers we're now hearing are in the hundreds of job cuts globally, and the low hundreds in the Seattle region.

That might qualify as a severe layoff at smaller companies, but it appears to amount to an annual pruning in the scheme of things at Microsoft, which cut more than 5,000 jobs last year as it adjusted to the recession. The company employed 88,596 people globally at end of June -- up slightly from 88,180 in the previous quarter -- and it's expected to continue growing modestly even with the latest cuts.

A disproportionately large number of the cuts are coming in marketing groups across the company, according to people familiar with the situation. That confirms one of the details being reported by anonymous posters on the Mini-Microsoft blog, which is a virtual watercooler for Microsoft employees. Comments there also point to other parts of the company affected by the cuts, but we haven't been able to confirm those details.

Some but not all of the employees being let go as part of the latest cuts are expected to be invited to apply for other job openings inside the company.

Microsoft isn't commenting on the job cuts, and the company hasn't made an official announcement about them.

Companies are required to report mass layoffs to the state under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), but it's not clear if these Microsoft cuts will meet the minimum threshold for reporting, given the company's size and the way the cuts are dispersed among different locations. As of earlier today, the company hadn't filed a WARN notice with the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Previously on TechFlash: Microsoft pruning more jobs