Months back, Microsoft-owned social network LinkedIn had laid off 715 employees and closed down inCareer, its Chinese app. Now, a few months down the line, the copmany aims to bring a new round of layoffs to its organization – something that represents more than 3% of the company’s total global workforce of 20,000. Overall, both rounds would total to 1,384 employees laid off this year alone, adding to the tens of thousands who lost job in the tech industry this year.
Reports suggest that LinkedIn’s R&D teams will bear the brunt of this round of layoffs with 563 job cuts. This news comes as the company refocuses its strategies to harness artificial intelligence (AI) and cope with slowing revenue growth. The job positions being eliminated are primarily spread across LinkedIn’s engineering, product, talent, and finance teams, and complements its ambitious push towards AI optimization.
With companies moving to AI aggressively, it is expected to have a temporary but mass impact on jobs in the tech sector. LinkedIn itself recently introduced several AI-driven product features, such as AI-assisted candidate discovery for recruiters and AI-powered coaching services for premium subscribers. These enhancements are designed to improve user experiences and streamline critical operations on the platform.
Even though layoffs are coming, the 21-year-old LinkedIn has generally stood apart in the social media realm, by defying the odds and continually expanding its user base. Despite challenges in the tech sector, LinkedIn’s user base has consistently grown for the past two years. Today, it boasts 950 million users spread across more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The platform’s annual revenue exceeded $15 billion for the first time during the last fiscal year, demonstrating its financial strength. Its revenue also clocked an annual increase of 5% in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2023 year.
“Talent changes are a difficult, but necessary and regular part of managing our business. The changes we shared with our team today will result in a reduction of approximately 668 roles across our engineering, product, talent and finance teams,” LinkedIn announced in an official update. “While we are adapting our organizational structures and streamlining our decision making, we are continuing to invest in strategic priorities for our future and to ensure we continue to deliver value for our members and customers. We are committed to providing our full support to all impacted employees during this transition and ensuring that they are treated with care and respect,” it added.
The technology sector has been navigating a challenging landscape in 2023, characterized by economic uncertainties, evolving market dynamics, and shifts in hiring and advertising spending. Across the tech industry, tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in response to these challenges. In the first half of this year, the tech sector witnessed a significant wave of job cuts, with 141,516 employees being affected, including those from behemoths such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Overall Layoffs.fyi reports that more than 242,000 people have been axed in the technology sector in 2023. This figure is a stark contrast to the approximately 6,000 job losses in the same period the previous year. Companies are taking proactive measures to navigate these changing conditions.
