LinkedIn, the social networking site owned by Microsoft, plans to eliminate more than 700 jobs due to declining demand. The company’s CEO, Ryan Roslansky, announced the planned cuts in an email to employees that the company published on its website. LinkedIn employs around 20,000 people and is primarily used for job searching and recruiting. The firm’s revenue comes from advertising sales and recruiting and sales services fees.
Even though the company has experienced revenue growth over the past year, like other technology companies, LinkedIn has decided to reduce the number of positions due to the worsening outlook for the global economy. LinkedIn has existed for 20 years and serves as a platform for job seekers and recruiters.
Roslansky said that cutting jobs in the sales, operations, and support teams aim to streamline business operations and accelerate decision-making. However, the company is also introducing 250 new external job positions that people whose positions have been eliminated can apply for.
Microsoft, which acquired LinkedIn for around $26 billion in 2016, recently announced layoffs of about 11,000 positions. The website Layoffs.fyi reports that over the past six months, more than 270,000 positions have been eliminated in the technology sector. This website specializes in recording information on layoffs in technology companies.
For example, Meta, the company behind social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, laid off 11,000 people last fall. Another round of layoffs, which affected thousands of people, took place at the beginning of spring. Dutch consumer electronics and medical equipment manufacturer Philips announced in late January that it plans to eliminate another 6,000 jobs over the next two years. Last October, the company announced extensive layoffs that affected 4,000 people.
In January, other technology companies also announced mass layoffs. European software company SAP will lay off about 3,000 employees, while American tech giant IBM plans to lay off 3,900 people. Xiaomi, Twitter, HP, and many others have also decided to cut jobs. The layoffs indicate a significant upheaval in the tech sector and suggest that companies feel the impact of the pandemic and the global economic downturn.