LinkedIn is joining the list of companies that laid off its employees.
The Microsoft-owned social media network for business professionals recently announced it is laying off more than 700 of its employees to help streamline the company's operations and cut costs.
LinkedIn is one of the latest companies to lay off employees to offset the deficit caused by the ongoing recession and economic uncertainties.
LinkedIn LayOffs Details
LinkedIn mentioned in its announcement it is laying off 716 employees, or almost 4% of its workforce, to streamline its operations as demand wavers and remove layers to help 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," company CEO Ryan Roslansky said in a letter to employees.
He also mentioned that the layoffs would affect its sales, operations, and support teams and that doing so would create 250 new jobs that the affected employees could apply for if they wish.
According to CNBC TV 18, the company previously had 20,000 employees working for it as it grew quarter-by-quarter in 2022, but the weakening global economic outlook and recession have forced it to join the list of companies that had to lay off its employees to stay profitable.
For those unaware, LinkedIn generates most, if not all, of its revenue through ad sales and by charging for subscriptions to recruiting and sales professionals who wish to use the platform to find and hire potential employees, per Reuters.
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Aside from the layoffs in the company, LinkedIn also decided to retire its local jobs app in China, called InCareers, by Aug. 9 due to fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate.
Interestingly, LinkedIn decided to mostly withdraw from China due to a "challenging environment," but chose to maintain InCareers, albeit in a slimmed-down version.
Despite InCareers' sunsetting, LinkedIn will retain a presence in China to help companies hire and train employees outside the country, per a company spokesperson.
The BBC mentioned that LinkedIn was the only major Western social-media platform operating in China since 2014, the year it first launched. At the time, the company agreed to satisfy what the Chinese government required of it to operate there.
Tech Industry Layoffs
LinkedIn is the latest tech company to lay off its employees, though the number of employees it has to let go pales in comparison to the other companies that did so too.
Tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta implemented layoffs that affected more than 270,000 jobs, per Layoffs.fyi, which has been tracking the fallout since it started.
For instance, job hunting site Indeed previously announced it is laying off more than 15% of its workforce to reduce its monthly spending, with it hinting that it could implement more cost-cutting measures in the immediate future.
Indeed's CEO, Chris Hyams stated that the layoffs were focused on "minimizing redundant roles and 'inefficiency,'" per Gizmodo.
Related Article: Indeed Job Searching Platform Lays Off Around 2,000 People
