LinkedIn is laying off 668 employees in the second phase this year

Oct 16 (Reuters) – Microsoft’s LinkedIn said on Monday it would lay off 668 employees across its engineering, talent and finance teams in a second round of job cuts this year for the social media network for professionals amid slowing revenue growth. .

These cuts, which affect more than 3% of the 20,000 employees, are in addition to the tens of thousands of jobs lost this year in the technology sector in the face of an uncertain economic outlook.

“As we adapt our organizational structures and streamline our decision-making process, we continue to invest in strategic priorities for our future and to ensure we continue to deliver value to our members and customers,” LinkedIn said in a blog post on Monday.

The technology sector laid off 141,516 employees in the first half of the year compared with about 6,000 a year ago, according to staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

LinkedIn makes money through ad sales and by charging subscription fees to recruiting and sales professionals who use the network to find suitable job candidates.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, LinkedIn’s revenue increased 5% year over year, compared to 10% in the previous quarter.

Microsoft cited a slowdown in hiring coupled with a decline in ad spending as headwinds for LinkedIn, though it continues to add new members to its 950 million community.

LinkedIn decided in May to cut 716 positions across its sales, operations and support teams to streamline its processes and remove layers to help make faster decisions.

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