LinkedIn To Have Second Round of Layoffs

LinkedIn is laying off 668 employees (3% of its workforce) from its engineering, talent, and finance teams, marking the second time in 2023 that the social media giant has enacted job cuts.

"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 wrote in a statement. 

Earlier this year, Microsoft's company cut 716 jobs as part of plans to refocus its Global Business Organization (GBO). Additionally, the platform also shut down InCareer, its job market app in China, leading to the removal of local product and engineering teams.

"With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors," LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky explained.

The Layoff List Leaks Ahead of the Announcement

Several reports revealed LinkedIn employees found their names in an internal list a day before they were informed about the layoffs.

An employee shared in a Blind post that this list was "leaked accidentally," warning his peers that the company would let go of 508 employees in the engineering team on Monday. 

"Blind fam, please check on our friends, and ex coworkers tomorrow. Please be ready with referrals to help out people especially on Visa, financial constraints [...] No confirmation if this is happening beyond engineering," the worker wrote. 

Eventually, a new list titled the "October Update" surfaced in LinkedIn's GroupID tool, which contained the full list of names of employees affected by the job cuts. 

However, the update was deleted ahead of the official announcement. 

Employees Announce Their Departure From LinkedIn

Matt Doar, a Staff Engineer and Senior Jira Administrator at LinkedIn, shared in a post that he was one of those affected by the layoffs.

"I'll be taking a few days to say farewell to the many people that I've enjoyed working with there, and then take some time to consider my next directions," Doar wrote. 

LinkedIn has become the latest company to join the wave of tech giants making cost-cutting measures through layoffs. 

According to Layoffs.fyi, an estimated 243,000 employees have been laid off from over a thousand tech companies in 2023 alone.

Edited by Nikola Djuric