LinkedIn is still growing. That did not spare employees from another round of cuts.
The Microsoft-owned professional networking company is reducing roles and trimming spending as leaders concentrate resources on the areas they believe will carry the business forward. Across the tech sector, companies are still chasing growth while asking fewer workers and smaller budgets to carry more of the load.
Inside LinkedIn, the reorganization now comes down to people, priorities, and the parts of the company that leadership is willing to shrink.
Layoffs affect several major teams
LinkedIn plans to cut about 5% of its workforce, with reductions spanning its Global Business Organization, marketing, engineering, and product teams, according to Reuters.
Employees in the US were expected to receive calendar invites shortly after CEO Daniel Shapero sent a companywide memo, while employees in Asia and the Pacific were expected to learn their status on Thursday.
LinkedIn said the layoffs are part of regular business planning. “As part of our regular business planning, we’ve implemented organizational changes to best position ourselves for future success,” a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
The company has about 17,500 full-time employees globally, so a 5% reduction would affect roughly 875 workers. The cuts are reportedly tied to a reorganization and a focus on growth areas, not to AI replacing workers.
Marketing, vendors, events, and office space face reductions
The pullback also reaches areas outside staffing. In the memo viewed by Business Insider, Shapero said the company would scale back marketing campaigns, vendor spending, customer events, and underused office space so teams can focus on work with the “broadest impact with the highest ROI.”
A smaller operating budget gives the reorganization a wider reach than the layoff count alone suggests. LinkedIn is also closing its office in Graz, Austria, another sign that the company is tightening its physical footprint and spending.
Shapero called the changes a matter of “hard prioritization and tradeoffs,” language that captures the memo’s broader direction. LinkedIn wants to keep investing, but with fewer resources spread across fewer bets.
Revenue growth did not prevent layoffs
LinkedIn’s revenue rose 12% in the most recent quarter, Reuters reported, meaning the company is not cutting from a position of obvious weakness.
Its parent company has been tightening costs, too. Microsoft recently offered voluntary retirement buyouts to eligible long-serving US employees while continuing to spend heavily on AI infrastructure.
LinkedIn’s cuts underline a tougher reality inside big tech: growth can protect the business without protecting every team, office, or investment. For workers, the next phase of the AI-era tech boom may come with fewer seats at the table.
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