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Parking on the Redmond campus is a toughie these days as the employee count of Microsoft has doubled since what it was projecting at the beginning of the fiscal year. The new numbers reflect a net addition of more than 10,000 people worldwide, bringing the total to 71,553. In raw figures, it's the biggest annual increase in the company's history.

New employment figures disclosed on an informational section of the company's web site represent twice the amount of growth that Microsoft had publicly projected at the start of the fiscal year.

"That's a very healthy increase," said Chang Mook Sohn, Washington State's chief economist. "I am so pleased to see that. We were expecting about half of that, so the pace has quickened." Sohn called the larger employment growth a good sign for the region as well, citing the relatively high-paying nature of many jobs in the industry.

The big growth comes as the company prepares to launch new versions of its flagship products, Windows and Office, early next year. At the same time, Microsoft is investing heavily in new online services under the Windows Live and MSN brands, to compete with Google, Yahoo, and other companies. It is also pushing into new areas such as Internet-based telephony and competing aggressively in the video-game console business. Explaining the increase, Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray cited factors including upcoming product launches. "We are investing in the marketing and sales muscle necessary to ensure that those launches are successful," Murray said. "At the same time, we're investing in research and development to set the stage for even stronger growth in the future."

Contrary to Sohn’s opinion, an anonymous employee of Microsoft believes that the company should "slim down into a lean, mean, efficient customer pleasing profit making machine". He acknowledged that he is disappointed by the trend. Among other things, he noted that it's difficult to find enough software developers who meet Microsoft's requirements. "My biggest interest is to know how it breaks down by discipline," he said. "It just cannot be all developers unless we really lowered the bar." On the other hand, Murray said Microsoft is "seeing exceptional acceptance rates from top candidates."