LinkedIn becomes the latest name on a 100,000-job tech layoff list

"LinkedIn is cutting roughly 5% of its staff, the latest reduction at a Microsoft-owned business and the most recent entry in a year-long Big Tech contraction that has now displaced more than 100,000 workers across the sector."

"The company's chief executive Ryan Roslansky set out the cuts in a letter to employees, citing "shifts in customer behavior and slower revenue growth" and a move to "a flatter organisational structure," Bloomberg reported on Wednesday."

"The defining feature is the divergence between payroll and capital expenditure. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are collectively guiding to roughly $725 billion of capital spending in 2026, almost all of it directed at AI infrastructure, GPUs, and data centres."

"That figure is up from $462 billion in 2025, and rising faster than at any point since the cloud build-out of the late 2010s. Headcount, meanwhile, is going the other direction at the same firms, with the rough four-month running total of new layoffs at Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and adjacent peers comfortably above 50,000 jobs."

LinkedIn is reducing its workforce by roughly 5%, following other Big Tech job cuts that have displaced more than 100,000 workers across the sector. The cuts are attributed to shifts in customer behavior, slower revenue growth, and a move toward a flatter organizational structure. LinkedIn had about 18,500 employees at the start of 2026, implying roughly 900 to 1,000 roles affected, though the company has not confirmed an exact number. Meanwhile, major technology firms are planning about $725 billion in 2026 capital spending, largely for AI infrastructure, GPUs, and data centers. This spending level is rising faster than during the late-2010s cloud build-out, while headcount reductions continue.

Read at TNW | Microsoft