LinkedIn to Fire 716 Employees

The Microsoft-owned company, LinkedIn is set to layoff 716 employees as they close down its China-focused job application. This layoffs comes after the global economic outlooked weakened and a drop on demand.

LinkedIn has joined major technology companies who participated in layoffs, this includes Microsoft, Even though LinkedIn increased its revenue every quarter for the past year.

The social media platform for professional connections has about 20,000 employees and will be laying off 716 workers, about 3.5%.

In a letter to employees LinkedIn Chief Executive Ryan Roslansky said, “In an evolving market, we must continuously have the conviction to adapt our strategy in order to make our vision a reality,” Roslansky said.

Roslansky said the changes will include the creation of 250 new roles and integration of some teams, as well as reducing management roles and broadening responsibilities “to make decisions more quickly”.

“As we turn 20, we are entering a new decade for LinkedIn, one that will perhaps be the most consequential we’ve experienced to date,” he said.

“AI is just beginning to accelerate changes in the global economy and labour market, and LinkedIn is more essential than ever to help our members and customers navigate the changes to access economic opportunity.”

LinkedIn will continue to operate in China to assist companies operating there to hire and train employees outside the country. In the past six months, over 2,70,000 tech jobs worldwide have been cut, with large companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google parent company Alphabet accounting for the bulk of the layoffs.