I find it a little disappointing how when any large company reduces staffing it always makes the news.<p>I'm not at all saying these people at LinkedIn deserve this, I bet they're smart people and I hope they find new employment very soon.<p>But speaking generally ... many of us have worked at or worked with big bloated companies. We all know that many of them could be improved by slimming down. But we report on it like its a sign of the downfall.
> "Our Talent Solutions business continues to be impacted as fewer companies, including ours, need to hire at the same volume they did previously."<p>We're in a recruitment-related field (online background checking) and we can clearly see that recruitment activity has dropped way off, even in sectors that are largely unaffected by the pandemic.<p>My theory is that people are clinging on to their jobs tightly as unemployment rises, so discretionary turnover is way down.
Companies commonly use layoffs as an easy way to get rid of under-performing staff, realize cost savings from previous investments (e.g., automation) ahead of schedule, or efficiently reorganize divisions whose execs fall out of favor. Not going to say this is good, but a <10% layoff is not unreasonable for a healthy company, especially when some business units may be stagnating.<p>However callous it is, roles on the margin get cut when prospects for growth dim.
A lot of the very big companies are quite reluctant to start layoffs if they think the situation can be survived for a few months. They don't want to be seen as evil firing-their-contractors, people-as-expendable, etc. They are an easy target as "big corp".<p>But if they can see this is going to go on more than the end of 2020, they will start having to confront the need to layoff people seriously. Interestingly, the more certainty they have about how bad it is, the sooner the layoffs.
<i>LinkedIn would be investing in other parts of the business which would result in some job creation and the firm would "work with employees impacted by today's announcement to explore these opportunities"</i><p>Good to know that they will first consider rehiring/interviewing the laid off employees and they are public about it.<p>Curious question: does the employee get to keep the severance package if rehired after being laid off?
I'm sorry to hear about people losing their jobs. It sucks, especially now when there is so much uncertainty.<p>LinkedIn makes a lot of money through recruitment ads - five years ago it was at least $300/month for professional positions in hot markets. If companies stop posting ads or switch to cheaper alternatives (some companies still use Craigslist) the impact will be significant for LinkedIn and its employees.
I'm surprised. LinkedIn has to be one of the major sites whose traffic has gone up in recent months, with so many people looking for work and stuck in front of a computer.
Microsoft is doing its usual fiscal year-end layoffs, but fewer than usual - <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-doing-its-usual-fiscal-year-end-layoffs-but-fewer-than-usual/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-is-doing-its-usual-f...</a>
It's awful to see such a large reduction in force when MSFT overall is up 30% year to date. I haven't heard of other FAAMG companies making similar moves.
The downward spiral for all industries that are primarily US based because of the overreaction to COVID has not even begun to be felt.<p>But you know, keep posting about how this side won't wear masks and people are jerks all day instead of facing the fact that haircuts aren't the goal - a stable economy is essential, not secondary, to a country's survival.
Doesn't LinkedIn(Microsoft) has a shit ton of money in reserves? Is cutting down these jobs in the midst of a pandemic really essential for the company's survival? Especially when the economies has started recovering in many parts of the world.