LinkedIn had 12% revenue growth last quarter. They also just fired 900 people.
The official reason is AI restructuring. The new CPO told employees they want “smaller, faster, more agile teams” that lean harder on AI tools. Translation: business is great, but cutting staff is how you tell investors you’re being futuristic. LinkedIn’s own AI hiring products are already pulling in $450 million a year. That money didn’t go to the people who built them.
Harvard Business Review ran the numbers on this wave. Ninety-five percent of companies running AI-driven layoffs are seeing no measurable profit return. Zero. They’re not cutting because AI is doing the work. They’re cutting because AI is a credible excuse, and workers are the most expensive line on a spreadsheet. LinkedIn is just the most ironic version of this story: a platform that sells you job-hunting tools, firing the people on your screen.