In the latest round of tech sector layoffs, LinkedIn will eliminate over 700 positions and discontinue its China jobs app.
Monday, Ryan Roslansky, CEO of the Microsoft-owned professional networking platform, announced in a letter to employees that 716 positions would be eliminated as part of adjustments designed to respond to economic conditions and make the company more responsive.
“As the market and customer demand fluctuate more, and to better serve emerging and growth markets, we are utilizing more vendors,” he explained. “We are also removing layers, reducing management roles, and broadening responsibilities in order to make decisions more quickly.”
These vendors, according to a LinkedIn spokesperson, are “external partners” who will take on new and existing work.
Roslansky stated that the product and engineering teams will be in charge of the company’s technology roadmap, while the business productivity team will be phased out and partially integrated into other business units.
He stated that as of May 15, 250 new positions would be created in operations, new business, and account management teams.
LinkedIn has approximately 20,000 employees worldwide.
Roslansky stated that the company’s China-based jobs app, InCareer, would cease operations on August 9 and the company would shift its focus to assisting Chinese companies with hiring, marketing, and training abroad. China would eliminate jobs in product, engineering, corporate, sales, and marketing.
“Although InCareer achieved some success in the past year thanks to our formidable China-based team, it also faced fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic environment,” Roslansky said.
The LinkedIn platform will cease operations in China in 2021, citing a “challenging operating environment” in light of rumors that Chinese internet regulators desire greater supervision. Facebook and Twitter were already prohibited in China, and Google withdrew in 2010.
Roslansky stated that U.S.-based employees would be eligible for severance pay, continuous health coverage, and career transition services, whereas non-U.S.-based employees’ eligibility would depend on their respective countries’ regulations.
According to Layoffs.fyi, which has been monitoring the repercussions, more than 270,000 tech jobs have been eliminated in the past six months. Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has eliminated 10,000 positions, while Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has eliminated 21,000. Amazon has laid off 27,000 employees, while Google has eliminated 12,000 positions.
