LinkedIn cuts 700 jobs and closes China app

• Posted on May 9, 2023May 9, 2023
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

LinkedIn has become the latest tech firm to axe jobs, closing 716 roles out of a 20,000 workforce.

The social media network which focuses on business professionals will also phase out its local jobs app in China.

In a letter by the company’s chief executive Ryan Roslansky, he said the move was aimed at streamlining the firm’s operations.

In the last six months, firms including Amazon, LinkedIn’s parent Microsoft, and Alphabet have announced layoffs.

“With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors,” Mr Roslansky wrote.

He also said the changes would result in creating 250 new jobs which employees affected by the cuts in its sales, operations and support teams would be eligible to apply.

After mostly withdrawing from China in 2021, citing a “challenging environment”, the remaining app called InCareers will also be phased out by 9 August. InCareers only covers the Chinese market.

A LinkedIn spokesperson said the firm will keep a presence in China to help companies operating there to hire and train employees outside the country.

LinkedIn has been the only major Western social-media platform operating in China.

When launched in 2014, the firm had agreed to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government in order to operate there.

At the time, US senator Rick Scott called the move a “gross appeasement and an act of submission to Communist China”, in a letter to LinkedIn chief executive Ryan Roslansky and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella.

-BBC