LinkedIn Leads Another Layoff Season
This is the second set of layoffs announced by the Microsoft-owned social network
Looks like the United States is witnessing a fresh round of layoffs and heartbreaks, though one could argue that it never stopped since the recessionary headwinds ripped across global economies for most part of 2021 and 2022. The latest to join the bandwagon is Microsoft-owned LinkedIn which let go of 668 positions in the latest wave, having reduced 716 roles in May.
The company, which announced earlier this month that it would be rolling out AI-powered tools across the business, is reportedly eliminating 668 positions across engineering, product, talent and finance teams. The latest round takes the total layoffs at LinkedIn to 1384, which forms a part of the about 242,000 people losing jobs thus far in the tech sector during 2023.
The company released an unsigned statement that said, “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. We are committed to providing our full support to all impacted employees during this transition and ensuring that they are treated with care and respect.”
Of course, LinkedIn is not the only one
What does it actually mean? Well, do share your thoughts if you eventually figure out. From our point of view, it is a statement that says nothing, save the fact that their bottom lines are under duress and someone needs to pay for it. Of course, one cannot blame LinkedIn alone as just over the past month-and-half, there’s been a slew of layoffs in the US.
Among those, the one that garnered lots of attention related to the layoffs at Washington Post across multiple functions. Reports of an internal memo surfaced that dealt with this theme while reiterating that the company urgently needed to invest in “top growth priorities”, following cuts at NPR, Vox, Vice Media, ESPN and Los Angeles Times.
Days earlier, General Motors had let go of 155 employees across a few of its facilities. What’s more, these layoffs took place alongside the United Auto Workers of the US going on strike after the Big Three auto giants reduced 2000 Kansas-based assembly plant employees. The total number is reported to be around 2400 now. Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler and Jeep, had laid off 570 people some days ago while Ford let go of 1220 of its staff.
There were also reports of supply chain management company Flexport reducing its workforce by a third, which could result in more than a thousand people losing their jobs. Cloud services company Juniper Networks let go of 440 of its employees as part of a restructuring plan, envisaged in a plan shared with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Big Guns are slashing big time
Then there was the report of survey tool company Qualtrics slashing its workforce by 15% which accounts for 780 numbers and Wells Fargo removing 525 employees from its Columbia premises in South Carolina. By the way, we came to know that a large chunk of the company’s India workforce (could be as many as 3000) have also been let go in recent times. Efforts to get confirmation did not yield results as phone calls went unanswered.
There were more instances reported in September that included companies such as Snap letting go of 170 employees at its augmented reality business. The malaise wasn’t restricted to just the tech sector as athletic wear company Lululemon is cutting jobs days after it stopped selling its Studio Mirror brand that it had acquired for $500 million.
The healthcare industry also saw some blood-letting as Centene said 2000 employees would lose their jobs, which accounts for just 3% of its massive workforce. There are also reports of layoffs in Cisco, which could impact around 330 employees. This comes weeks after the company announced a $28 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Splunk.
There were also reports of Google letting go recruiters and Airtable slashing more than 200 jobs in mid-September. Of course, the big news of the month was Binance laying off a 1000 people to ensure more than seven years of financial runway to itself. Words like talent density management, nimbleness and dynamism floated around after this bloodbath.
Of course, one could say the bigger news could be that of the Federal Reserve itself letting go of employees during 2023. Most of these jobs revolve around technology and target the bank’s 12 regional reserve banks. That this layoff could account for 1% of the Fed’s 24,500 employees is what is being depicted as the silver lining.
