LinkedIn is preparing to announce layoffs on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the Microsoft-owned workplace networking platform moves to cut about 5% of its staff. The company is also reorganizing teams and steering employees toward areas where its business is growing.
The cuts would affect a company with more than 17,500 full-time employees worldwide, though was unable to determine which teams would be hit. LinkedIn makes money from recruiting tools and subscriptions, and its revenue rose 12% in the just-ended quarter from a year earlier, even as the broader technology sector has kept trimming jobs this year.
The timing makes the move notable. LinkedIn is not responding to a collapse in demand or a sudden reversal in its business; it is trying to rework its internal structure while revenue is still rising. The layoffs are also not being framed as a case of artificial intelligence replacing jobs at the company, which separates this round from some of the more sweeping job-cut narratives now common across the industry.
That leaves the sharper question inside the company: how much change can LinkedIn make to its workforce while keeping the product and sales machine moving? The answer will matter not just for employees facing Wednesday’s announcement, but for a platform that sits at the center of Microsoft’s professional services business and depends on steady hiring activity to sell its tools.
