• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Despite reporting “record engagement” and revenue boosts across its past two quarters, LinkedIn's workforce will be negatively impacted by a new round of layoffs announced by the platform's parent company Microsoft.

Microsoft -- the highest valued company in the world -- is cutting its global workforce by 3%, which equates to around 6,000 total jobs. The tech giant says that its decision is not rooted in performance issues -- evident in its latest quarterly report, in which the company made $25.8 billion in profit, predicting even higher numbers in the months ahead.

Instead, Microsoft says its decision to cut jobs is intended to “reduce management layers” amid its 200,000 employees. This will mark the company's largest round of layoffs since January 2023, when 10,000 employees were let go due to performance-based goals.

Microsoft says LinkedIn employees will be affected, but has yet to name exactly how many jobs will be cut. According to The Seattle Times, however, the cuts will affect almost 2,000 workers in Washington state alone.

Following 200 job cuts in 2024, LinkedIn's cost-efficient future is tied to the billions of dollars Microsoft is investing in AI technologies and companies like OpenAI, which Microsoft is also preparing to help launch an IPO moving forward.

Notably, LinkedIn has also reduced its operations in China, sunsetting its localized version of the app in 2021 due to the government's heightened compliance requirements.