LinkedIn axes 716 jobs in fresh tech cuts, shuts China app

LinkedIn on May 8, 2023, announced it is laying off 716 people due to ‘shifts in consumer behaviour and slower revenue growth’. Image for representational purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Professional networking platform LinkedIn says it’s laying off more than 700 workers and shuttering its China jobs app, in the latest round of tech industry downsizing.

LinkedIn blamed “shifts in customer behaviour and slower revenue growth” for the cuts, which it announced in a blogpost late on May 8.

Technology companies have resorted to recurring waves of layoffs over the past year, in a new phenomenon to hit the industry that reverses more than a decade of mostly unbridled growth.

LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, indicated that the net number of job losses could be less than 500.

As part of its strategic shakeup, LinkedIn said it would be “opening up more than 250 new roles” in parts of its operations team as well as new business and account management teams starting on May 15.

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LinkedIn said it will also shut down its local jobs app for China, InCareer, by August, citing “fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate”.

InCareer was launched in 2021 as a jobs board that didn’t include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles. It replaced the Chinese version of LinkedIn’s website, which the company closed as Beijing cracked down on the internet sector.