SAN FRANCISCO – LinkedIn, the social media network owned by Microsoft that focuses on business professionals, said on Monday it will cut 716 jobs as demand wavers, while also shutting down its China-focused jobs app.
LinkedIn, which has 20,000 employees, grew revenue in each quarter in 2022, but it joins other major technology companies including its parent in laying off workers amid a weakening global economic outlook.
In the past six months, more than 270,000 tech jobs globally have been cut, according to the Layoffs.fyi website, which has been tracking the fallout.
LinkedIn makes money through ad sales and also by charging for subscriptions to recruiting and sales professionals who use the network to find prospects.
In a letter to employees, LinkedIn chief executive Ryan Roslansky said the move to cut roles in its sales, operations and support teams is aimed at streamlining the company’s operations and will remove layers to help it make quicker decisions.
“With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors,” Mr Roslansky wrote.
A LinkedIn spokesman said the vendors are “external partners” who will take on new and existing work.
Mr Roslansky also said in the letter that the changes will result in the creation of 250 new jobs. The spokesman said that employees affected by the cuts will be eligible to apply for those roles.
LinkedIn also said it is eliminating the slimmed-down jobs application that it offers in China after it decided in 2021 to mostly withdraw from the country, citing a “challenging” environment. The China app, called InCareer, will be phased out by Aug 9, it added.
“Despite our initial progress, InCareer faced fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate, which ultimately led us to the decision of discontinuing the service,” the company told users of the website.
LinkedIn will retain a presence in China to help companies operating there to hire and train employees outside the country, the company spokesman said.
In the tech sector, large companies have accounted for the bulk of recent layoffs, including 27,000 at Amazon.com, the most in its history.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms has shed 21,000 jobs, while Google parent Alphabet has laid off 12,000 workers.
Before LinkedIn’s announcement, 5,000 technology jobs have been eliminated in May alone, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Microsoft, which bought LinkedIn for around US$26 billion (S$34.5 billion) in 2016, has announced some 10,000 job cuts in recent months and took a US$1.2 billion charge related to the layoffs. REUTERS
