LinkedIn lays off 668 employees to balance its cash flow – 10/16/2023 – Market

The social network focused on the world of work LinkedIn announced, this Monday (16), the dismissal of 668 employees. The cut affects engineering, product, recruiting and finance teams.

According to the note, the reduction in professional staff “aims to adapt the company’s organizational structure to strategic priorities.” The layoffs represent 3% of LinkedIn’s approximately 20,000 employees.

An internal statement signed by executives Mohawk Shroff and Tomer Cohen, obtained by American TV CNBC, indicates that the layoffs are aimed at reducing expenses to compensate for lower-than-expected growth in the 2024 balance sheet.

Wanted by Sheet via email and WhatsApp, LinkedIn did not respond until the publication of this report. The company also did not say whether the layoffs would affect Brazilians.

The company has presented positive numbers in the last two years in terms of user base and subscriptions, but has had difficulty converting them into increases in revenue, which grew just 5% in the second quarter (the most recent balance sheet).

Of the total, 563 cuts affect engineers and technology employees dedicated to research and development. These professionals make up the so-called heart of technology companies and, in general, represent a significant part of the salary bill.

Also according to CNBC, LinkedIn intends to replace part of these positions with professionals hired in India.

The New York Magazine reported in September that LinkedIn reported 41% growth in content posted between September 2021 and September 2023. The company also detailed that Generation Z is “one of the fastest growing groups” on the platform .

The social network is owned by Microsoft, which announced plans to terminate the contracts of 10,000 employees at the beginning of the year to balance the books and redirect efforts to new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

The 700 layoffs at LinkedIn were not included in this amount, according to people familiar with the matter interviewed by CNBC.

In May, the business-focused social network had already announced the layoff of 716 people in the sales, operations and support teams.

The technology sector as a whole is going through a downsizing season. It laid off 141,516 employees in the first half of the year, compared to around 6,000 a year ago, according to consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

_{With Reuters}