Earlier this month, LinkedIn announced that it would roll out a raft of new AI-powered tools across the business. Today, it’s making a different kind of announcement focused on the future: The company is laying off 668 employees.
We understand from a reliable source that the majority of the layoffs, some 563, will be in R&D, with teams across engineering, product, talent and finance impacted.
The cuts, announced this morning, come five months after LinkedIn announced 716 job cuts, at the same time that it would be phasing out its app in China. Today’s cuts bring the total number of layoffs to Microsoft-owned LinkedIn to 1,384. In total, there have been more than 242,000 people laid off in the technology sector in 2023, according to employment tracker Layoffs.fyi.
“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 company said in an unsigned statement today. “We are committed to providing our full support to all impacted employees during this transition and ensuring that they are treated with care and respect.”
It didn’t specify which strategic priorities but a refocus on hiring more AI talent is likely part of the mix.
After getting acquired by Microsoft for more than $26 billion in 2016, LinkedIn became significantly less transparent in terms of its finances and other operational metrics. In Microsoft’s July 2023 full-fiscal-year earnings report, the company noted that it had more than 950 million members and over $15 billion in revenues, with Talent Solutions the single biggest contributor at $7 billion+.
“We continue to use AI to help our members and customers connect to opportunities and tap into the experiences of experts on the platform. Our AI-powered collaborative articles are now the fastest-growing traffic driver to LinkedIn,” it said at the time.
More to come.