Pinterest Inc. has laid off some of its recruiting team and plans to slow hiring for the rest of the year, a representative said, making the online image and idea-sharing platform the latest social-media company to let go of staff amid a wobbly digital-ad market.
“We made great hires at Pinterest this year and have strong talent in place to support the needs of our business. With less need for hiring support, we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our recruiting team.” Shares of Pinterest were down 3.9% on Tuesday. The stock has plummeted 58% so far this year. By comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.68% has fallen 17%.
Pinterest in June appointed Bill Ready as its new chief executive, with Ben Silbermann, a company co-founder and then-CEO, transitioning to a newly created executive chairman role. And in the wake of Pinterest’s third-quarter earnings, announced in October, some analysts found things to like about the company. Pinterest at that time reported profit and sales that were above estimates. MKM Partners, in a note at that time, called it “the only silver lining in the digital ad space.