Microsoft-owned LinkedIn fires 716 employees in fresh round of layoffs

Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn is set to lay off 716 employees, or about 3.5% of its staff, and close down its China-focused job application.

The move comes amid a “weakening global economic outlook and a drop in demand.”

The employment-focused social network had laid off workers in its recruiting department in February.


However, it is unclear how many employees have been affected by the latest layoffs.

A Reuters report said LinkedIn, which employs around 20,000 employees, has recorded revenue growth every quarter for the last year.

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The report added that CEO Ryan Roslansky, in a letter to employees, said the move to cut roles in the sales, operations and support teams was aimed at streamlining the company's operations and removing layers to enable 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," he wrote in the email.

Meanwhile, the platform said its job search app in China, called InCareers, will be phased out by August 9, 2023. LinkedIn cited a "challenging" environment for the move.

"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.

The company said it will retain its presence in China to help companies operating there hire and train employees outside the country.

Also read: Layoffs in 2023: Cognizant, Accenture, Amazon among latest firms to cut jobs amid economic turmoil

Linkedin has joined major technology companies in laying off workers, including its parent company, Microsoft. In the past six months, more than 270,000 tech jobs globally have been cut, according to Layoffs.fyi. Facebook owner Meta Platforms has sacked 21,000 employees, while Google parent Alphabet has laid off 12,000.

In January, Microsoft said it would lay off some 10,000 employees or about 5% of its global workforce to align its “cost structure” with declining revenue. CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a blog post that organisations in every industry and geography are now “exercising caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one".