LinkedIn revealed plans to reduce its workforce by 688 with the majority of the affected workers from the engineering, product, talent, and finance teams.
This follows a similar announcement in May where the company cut 716 jobs, bringing the total for the year to nearly 1400.
The company, which is owned by Microsoft, employs over 20,000 and stated the following via its company blog: “While we are adapting our organizational 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.”
The layoffs represent the shifting tide of employment in the tech sector with several large tech firms cutting staff for similar reasons.
Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft all announced significant cuts this year.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, cut 12,000 workers or 6% of its workforce in January as a reaction to its hiring spree that occurred during the pandemic.
Likewise, Microsoft cut 10,000 workers or 5% of its workforce in January “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”
The broader impacts of a recession mixed with the current need to keep cash on hand are contributors to all these announcements.
The upheaval that was caused by the pandemic drove hiring growth for many of the big tech companies that focus on remote worker technology.
The cuts that LinkedIn revealed, however, feel a little different than reactions to downsizing after overhiring.
A disproportionate number of affected employees were on the company’s Research and Development (R&D) team, leading one to wonder if the company is making cuts in advance of retooling its team to take advantage of new advances in AI.
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