LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned professional networking site, revealed its plans to lay off 716 employees. The company will be discontinuing its Global Business Organization and redistributing its responsibilities among the existing Product and Engineering teams. Additionally, LinkedIn will be scaling back its operations in China by shutting down its InCareer jobs app by August 9, 2023. Instead, the focus will shift to assisting companies in China with their hiring, marketing, and training needs abroad.
Despite the layoffs, LinkedIn intends to hire over 250 new employees for specific segments of its operations, including new business and account management teams, starting on May 15. This decision is aimed at aligning the company’s teams for growth. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky acknowledged that the layoffs were a difficult choice in response to the rapidly evolving business landscape. He further noted that the macroeconomic environment for LinkedIn’s fiscal-year 2024 is expected to remain challenging. As a result, the company will continue to manage expenses while investing in strategic areas of growth.
This layoff comes after LinkedIn’s undisclosed reduction of its talent acquisition team in February. It is worth mentioning that these layoffs are occurring during a period of low unemployment in the United States, with jobs still being added despite the ongoing recession. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an addition of 253,000 nonfarm jobs in April, which is half the number added in January.
It remains unclear whether LinkedIn’s layoffs are directly related to Microsoft’s announcement in January to cut 10,000 jobs by March 2024, citing inflationary pressures. Microsoft’s fiscal-year 2023 Q3 earnings report, released in April, indicated an 8% revenue increase for LinkedIn.
The news of LinkedIn’s layoffs was reported on the LinkedIn News platform, which provides updates on layoffs and related news.
