LinkedIn to cut more than 700 jobs amid global reorganisation

Professional networking company is also phasing out its careers platform in the Chinese market

A LinkedIn office in San Francisco, California. The company has 20,000 employees and offices in 36 locations globally. Bloomberg

LinkedIn, the professional social networking site owned by Microsoft, is cutting 716 jobs and phasing out its jobs platform in the Chinese market as it reorganises its global operations amid waning demand.

LinkedIn, which has 20,000 employees and offices in 36 locations globally, is the latest technology company to lay off staff.

Job losses at the company, which completed 20 years of operations last week, deepen the mass staff cuts in the broader technology industry driven by a push to operate leaner structures to save costs amid a drop in earnings and economic headwinds.

“Over the years we've had to make hard decisions to ensure we were setting the company up to deliver on our vision, and I'm sharing one of those decisions today,” LinkedIn chief executive Ryan Roslansky wrote in a letter to employees.

“As we guide LinkedIn through this rapidly changing landscape, we are making changes to our global business organisation and our China strategy that will result in a reduction of roles for 716 employees.”

LinkedIn is cutting roles in its sales, operations and support teams as it streamlines the company.

“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.

The reorganisation involves removing layers, reducing management roles and broadening responsibilities to make decisions more quickly.

The latest strategy shuffle will also open up more than 250 new roles in “specific segments of our operations, new business and account management teams starting on May 15”, he said.

Layoffs across the US technology industry have now claimed hundreds of thousands of jobs, with no end in sight in terms of job losses in the sector.

The industry has not experienced cuts this deep since the dot-com bubble burst and its reverberations could affect the broader US economy.

The technology sector claims the biggest share of market value in the S&P 500, accounting for about a quarter of the index. That is up from 18 per cent a decade ago.

Technology also accounts for about 6 per cent of US gross domestic product, and a similar share of jobs across the country. The average pay in the industry is nearly twice that of the typical US worker.

The technology industry hired staff in droves at the height of the digital boom triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, declining earnings and growing fears of a recession in the US have hit the sector hard.

Alphabet, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Yahoo, Zoom and Spotify are among the companies that have cut thousands of jobs in recent months.

Meta Platforms recently revealed plans to eliminate another 10,000 jobs and 5,000 open roles while Amazon laid off an additional 9,000 workers and job-hunting website Indeed cut 2,200 jobs.

Microsoft, which bought LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016, has announced about 10,000 job cuts in recent months and took a $1.2 billion charge related to the layoffs.

Before LinkedIn's announcement, 5,000 technology jobs had been in eliminated in May alone, Reuters reported, citing data from Layoffs.fyi.

LinkedIn said its China strategy would now focus on assisting companies operating in the country to hire, market and train abroad.

It will involve maintaining “our talent, marketing, and learning businesses, while phasing out InCareer, our local jobs app in China, by August 9, 2023”, Mr Roslansky said.

As the company plans for the next financial year, “we’re expecting the macro environment to remain challenging”, he said.

“We’re adapting as we have done this year and will continue to operate with the ambition we need to deliver on our vision and the pragmatism required to run the business well.”

The focus going forward will remain on cutting expenses as the company continues to invest in strategic growth areas, he said.