Professional networking firm LinkedIn has announced plans to cut 960 jobs worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The layoffs will reduce about six percent of the company’s workforce.
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky assured the job cuts will stop there.
“I’m sharing this news today so that everyone has the complete picture of these changes and why we are making them, and I want you to know these are the only layoffs we are planning.”
The decision comes as sectors from airlines to retailing cut jobs worldwide.
The Microsoft-owned firm employs 16,000 people and has offices in over 30 cities across the globe.
Based in California, LinkedIn prides in helping employers find suitable professionals for jobs, and assisting candidates find new jobs.
Roslansky said LinkedIn has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our Talent Solutions business continues to be impacted as fewer companies, including ours, need to hire at the same volume they did previously.”
The job cuts target the group’s global sales and employment divisions.
“After weeks of discussion and deliberation, the executive team and I have made the extremely difficult decision to reduce approximately 960 roles, or about 6 percent of our employee base, across our Global Sales and Talent Acquisition organizations.”
“COVID-19 is having a sustained impact on the demand for hiring, both in our LTS business and in our company. In GSO and GTO, there are roles that are no longer needed as we adjust to the reduced demand in our internal hiring and for our talent products globally.”
Job cuts everywhere
Firms in recent months have shed tens of thousands of jobs to tackle the effects of less demand due to coronavirus.
Recent job cuts include India’s biggest airline IndiGo cutting 10 percent of its workforce and UK retailer Marks & Spencer announcing 950 job cuts. Uber announced plans to cut 6,700 jobs in May.
Roslansky said Linkedin staff in the UK and Australia had consulted about the possible impact on their jobs.
Affected employees in North America, Brazil, and parts of APAC were made aware of impacts to their roles. These employees have until August 21st.
LinkedIn also notified impacted employees in Dubai and will be with the firm until September 29th.
Employees in France, Sweden, and Spain will learn about the impact to their roles in August. Italy employees will hear more about it in September.
Employees in its other global offices would learn about the decision’s impact on them over the next days and months.
He added that LinkedIn would invest in other parts of the business to create more jobs.
He said they would “employees impacted by today’s announcement to explore these opportunities.”
Affected employees will go through a transition process and receive a comprehensive financial, healthcare and career support.
“We’re providing a minimum of ten weeks of severance pay. This may increase based on tenure and country-specific practices, and is in addition to a paid notification period that varies by country. In addition, a payment in lieu of FY20 bonuses will be paid out at full target for those who are bonus-eligible, and departing employees will be eligible for our August stock vesting.”
