By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
LinkedIn assures of its commitment to ensure that the affected employees have a soft landing, promising to treat them with utmost care and respect.
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has announced its decision to relieve another 668 employees of their duties with the company. The announcement, which was shared via a Monday memo, follows an earlier layoff that saw the professional social network announce 716 job cuts in May.
According to sources familiar with the company’s decision, the latest layoff will affect LinkedIn’s engineering unit the most. However, the cuts also extend to other departments including the Research and Development (R&D), products, and human resources departments.
So far in 2023, LinkedIn has laid off no less than 1,384 employees, a situation that is reflective of a broader reality within the tech space. As data from employment tracker Layoffs.fyi suggests, over 242,000 people have been laid off in the technology sector this year.
LinkedIn Says Layoff Is ‘Strategic’
It might be worth noting that the reductions come following an important announcement by Microsoft in July where it said that LinkedIn’s revenue growth has been stalling for too long. At the time, Microsoft declared that the business-based social network had seen year-over-year revenue growth reduce for eight consecutive quarters. That is despite its membership growing consecutively in the same period.
However, the latest job cut might be more linked to an early October announcement where LinkedIn disclosed that it would be rolling out new AI-powered tools across its business.
Part of the memo, which was written by LinkedIn executives Mohak Shroff and Tomer Cohen, and obtained by CNBC reads:
“As we continue to execute on our FY24 plan, we need to also evolve how we work and what we prioritize so we can deliver on the key initiatives we’ve identified that will have an outsized impact in achieving our business goals.”
The memo further revealed the business’ intent to adapt its organizational structure and reduce layering. This, it hopes to achieve by continuing to invest in strategic priorities for the future. Although it didn’t specify which strategic priorities, a refocus on hiring more AI talent looks likely to be a major part of the mix.
For the affected employees, however, LinkedIn assures of its commitment to ensure that they have a soft landing, promising to treat them with utmost care and respect.