LinkedIn Cuts Staff and Shutters China-Focused Job Site

LinkedIn will shut down its Chinese jobs app and cut 716 positions amid slowing growth.

The changes, announced in a letter to employees Monday (May 8) from CEO Ryan Roslansky, mark the latest in a wave of layoffs to hit tech firms this year.

Roslansky told staff members that while the Microsoft-owned networking platform was “making meaningful progress creating economic opportunities for our members and customers and experiencing record engagement on the platform, we’re also seeing shifts in customer behavior and slower revenue growth.”

“In an evolving market, we must continuously have the conviction to adapt our strategy in order to make our vision a reality,” he added.

In this case, adapting means reorganizing teams around the world and using more vendors. The company will also phase out InCareer, its Chinese jobs app, discontinuing its product and engineering team and downsizing its corporate and sales and marketing staff in China.

“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 wrote.

That climate has led a number of other companies in the tech sector to cut jobs in recent months, with giants like Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Microsoft all letting go of workers.

More recently, the networking site Upwork announced it had laid off 15% of its full time staff, while also pausing investments in brand media.

“In the current macroeconomic environment, we do not have enough visibility into exactly when we will see brand awareness translate into client conversion to continue prioritizing the investment at this time,” CEO Hayden Brown said.

Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks tech company layoffs, said that as of Tuesday (May 9) morning, 191538 workers at 660 tech companies had lost their jobs this year.

Meanwhile, other sectors are hurting as well, as layoffs last month in the retail space jumped 270% over March, according to a recent report from employment service Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC).

The company’s findings showed that retailers eliminated 14,689 positions in April and 36,115 this year, an 843% increase versus the same period in 2022.

“Retailers and consumer goods manufacturers are preparing for a tightening in consumer spending, particularly with the Fed’s hike to interest rates in an attempt to control inflation,” CGC Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger said in the report.