LinkedIn is reportedly preparing to cut about 5% of its global workforce, which could impact around 850 to 900 employees. The Microsoft-owned company is restructuring teams and shifting more employees toward faster-growing parts of the business, even as LinkedInâs revenue increased 12% in the latest quarter, reports Reuters. Employees were scheduled to be informed internally on May 13. The move comes just a month after Microsoft appointed Daniel Shapero as LinkedInâs new CEO to accelerate the companyâs AI-focused strategy.
The planned cuts are expected to affect multiple divisions, including engineering, product management, marketing, and parts of LinkedInâs Global Business Organization, which oversees sales and enterprise operations. Internally, executives reportedly described the decision as a restructuring effort aimed at simplifying operations, improving organizational speed, and shifting resources toward long-term strategic priorities. Along with workforce reductions, the company is also reviewing spending across vendor contracts, office facilities, customer events, and marketing programs.
The latest job cuts become even more significant as LinkedInâs business has actually strengthened considerably over the past few quarters despite broader weakness in the global hiring market. Microsoftâs fiscal Q3 2026 earnings showed LinkedIn revenue growing 12% year-over-year, its fastest growth rate in almost four quarters and among the platformâs strongest performances since the post-pandemic recruitment slowdown began after 2022. The company now has more than 1.3 billion members globally. User engagement also continued improving sharply, with original posts rising 14% year-over-year and knowledge-focused comments increasing 11%. The companyâs paid video advertising business also surged nearly 30% compared with the previous year as LinkedIn aggressively expanded creator partnerships, short-form business video content, and premium B2B advertising tools.
The strong LinkedIn numbers came during an exceptionally strong quarter for Microsoft overall. In fiscal Q3 2026, Microsoft reported total revenue of $82.9 billion, up 18% year-over-year, while net income climbed to $31.8 billion and diluted earnings per share increased 23% to $4.27. It is important to note that LinkedIn has become an increasingly important part of Microsoftâs broader AI strategy, especially through AI-powered hiring products, recruiter copilots, automated candidate-matching systems, and enterprise productivity integrations. LinkedInâs AI-focused hiring products alone recently crossed a $450 million annual revenue run rate.
However, rising AI infrastructure and data center spending have pushed Microsoft to focus more aggressively on cost-cutting and workforce restructuring. This is not the first time LinkedIn has announced major layoffs in recent years. In 2023, the company cut around 716 jobs as global hiring activity slowed sharply following the post-pandemic recruitment boom. Earlier restructuring efforts also included reductions across recruiting, sales, and operations teams as LinkedIn focused on streamlining management layers and improving efficiency. The layoffs also reflect a broader trend across the tech industry, where companies are increasingly cutting jobs to improve profitability, reduce costs, and redirect spending toward AI-driven infrastructure and automation. Around 100,000 tech workers have reportedly already lost their jobs globally so far in 2026.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutoshâs career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
