In the latest round of tech sector redundancies, it has been announced by the world’s largest professional network on the internet, LinkedIn, that they shall cut more than 700 jobs and shut down its China jobs app.
LinkedIn to Lay Off 716 People
The CEO of Microsoft-owned professional networking platform, Ryan Roslansky said in the letter to staff that as many as 716 roles would go as part of changes aimed at responding to economic conditions and making the business more agile.
Citing the reasons behind the announcement as uncertainty in demand as well as restructuring, he said that “With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors. We are also removing layers, reducing management roles and broadening responsibilities to make decisions more quickly.”
A LinkedIn spokesperson said these vendors were “external partners” who would take on new and existing work.
The CEO added that it shall be the product as well as engineering teams that shall be responsible for the technology roadmap of the company while the business productivity team would be phased out and partly integrated into other parts of the business.
There are 250 new jobs would be created in operations, new business and account management teams from 15 May.
LinkedIn employs about 20,000 employees globally.
LinkedIn to Shut Down Its China-based Jobs App, InCareer
Roslansky said that the company’s China-based jobs app, InCareer, would shut from 9 August, with the company to focus on helping companies in China to hire, market and train abroad, Jobs in product, engineering, corporate, sales and marketing in China would go.
He said that “Though InCareer experienced some success in the past year thanks to our strong China-based team, it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate”.
Citing a “challenging operating environment” amid reports that Chinese internet regulators wanted more oversight, the LinkedIn platform shut down in China. Facebook and Twitter were already banned in China, while Google pulled out in 2010.
Speaking about those who lost their jobs, CEO said that they would be entitled to severance pay, continuing health coverage and career transition services. Those who were laid off and are outside the US, then the provisions would depend on their countries’ requirements.
More than 270,000 tech jobs globally have been cut in the past six months as per the Layoffs.fyi, which has been tracking the fallout.
LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, has cut 10,000 jobs while Facebook’s parent company Meta has shed 21,000. Google has cut 12,000 jobs while Amazon has laid off 27,000 workers.
