LinkedIn to cut 716 jobs and shut down Chinese app InCareer

theguardian.com:

LinkedIn will cut more than 700 jobs and shut down its China jobs app in the latest round of tech sector redundancies.

Ryan Roslansky, chief executive of the Microsoft-owned professional networking platform, announced on Monday in a letter to staff that 716 roles would go as part of changes aimed at responding to economic conditions and making the business more agile.

“With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors,” he said. “We are also removing layers, reducing management roles and broadening responsibilities to make decisions more quickly.”

A LinkedIn spokesperson said these vendors were “external partners” who would take on new and existing work.

Roslansky said the product and engineering teams would be responsible for the technology roadmap of the company while the business productivity team would be phased out and partly integrated into other parts of the business.

He said 250 new jobs would be created in operations, new business and account management teams from 15 May.

LinkedIn has about 20,000 employees globally.

The company’s China-based jobs app, InCareer, would shut from 9 August, with the company to focus on helping companies in China to hire, market and train abroad, Roslansky said. Jobs in product, engineering, corporate, sales and marketing in China would go.

“Though InCareer experienced some success in the past year thanks to our strong China-based team, it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate,” Roslansky said.

The LinkedIn platform shut down in China in 2021, citing a “challenging operating environment” amid reports that Chinese internet regulators wanted more oversight.