In the most recent round of redundancies in the technology sector, LinkedIn will eliminate over 700 roles and discontinue its China jobs app.
Monday, Ryan Roslansky, the chief executive officer of the professional networking platform owned by Microsoft, announced in a letter to employees that 716 positions would be eliminated as part of modifications designed to respond to economic conditions and make the company more responsive.
These vendors are “external partners” who will accept new and existing work.
“As the market and customer demand fluctuate more, and in order to better serve emerging and growth markets, we are utilizing more vendors,” he explained. “We are also removing layers, reducing management roles, and broadening responsibilities in order to make decisions more quickly.”
Roslansky stated that the product and engineering teams will be responsible for the company’s technology roadmap, while the business productivity team will be eliminated and partially integrated into other business entities.
He stated that 250 new positions would be added to the operations, new business, and account management teams beginning on May 15.
LinkedIn has roughly 20,000 personnel globally.
Roslansky announced that the company’s China-based jobs app, InCareer, would cease operations on August 9 and the company’s focus would transition to assisting Chinese companies with recruiting, marketing, and training overseas. China would eradicate product, engineering, corporate, sales, and marketing positions.
“Although InCareer achieved some success over the past year thanks to our formidable China-based team, it also faced fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic environment,” said Roslansky.
LinkedIn will cease operations in China in 2021, citing a “challenging operating environment” in light of speculation that Chinese internet regulators want greater oversight. Facebook and Twitter were previously banned in China, and Google left the country in 2010.
Roslansky indicated that U.S.-based employees would be eligible for severance pay, continuous health coverage, and career transition services, whereas the eligibility of non-U.S.-based employees would depend on the regulations of their respective countries.
Over the past six months, more than 270,000 tech positions have been eliminated, according to Layoffs.fyi, which has been tracking the repercussions. Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has laid off 10,000 employees, while Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has laid off 21,000. Google has eliminated 12,000 positions, while Amazon has cast off 27,000 employees.