LinkedIn lays off more than 650 employees in another round over bleak outlook

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn on Monday (Oct 16) said that it is eliminating more than 650 employees in second round off layoffs, joining the list of other US tech firms that havereduced theirworkforce as demand for hiring plummets.

As many as 668 employees, which constitute more than 3 per cent of its 20,000-strong workforce, across its engineering, talent and finance teams will be asked to go, reports Reuters news agency.

This comes after the social media network cut 716 jobs across sales, operations and support teams in May to streamline its operations and remove layers to help make quicker decisions.

Tech sector bleeding

LinkedIn generates money through ad sales and by charging for subscriptions to recruiting and sales professionals who use the network to find suitable job candidates.

Overall, the tech sector has laid off 141,516 employees in the first half of the year compared with about 6,000 a year ago, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“Talent changes are a difficult, but necessary and regular part of managing our business," the company said in a statement.

"While we are adapting our organisational 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."

LinkedIn joins growing list of tech firms in layoffs

Before making the announcement public, the company had shared the news with the staff over an e-mail, giving a breakdown of where the layoffs would be taking place.

It said "137 Engineering management roles" and "38 Product roles" were getting cut.

It added that 368 roles would get axed from its engineering team "in an effort to better align resources to our FY24 plan."

Moreover, the staff were told to expect to receive an email within an hour to find out whether they had been laid off, reports Business Insider.

In November 2022, Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, told CNBC that the company was planning to implement a hiring freeze across some parts of the company.

(With inputs from agencies)

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