Recent media reports suggest that Apple has begun laying off employees responsible for the construction and maintenance of their Apple Stores. While it’s being perceived more as a rationalization measure, the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has referred to it as a last resort. Reports from Bloomberg and Business Insider suggest that the number of affected employees will be small.
Although the layoffs are much smaller than those carried out by Google, Amazon, Meta, Dell and Microsoft, Apple can no longer claim to have avoided layoffs.
Bloomberg reported in March 2023 that Apple was already taking several other cost-cutting measures before resorting to layoffs. These measures included leaving new positions vacant, slowing hiring in some departments, postponing bonuses and projects, and cutting travel budgets.
Only a few positions in the company’s retail business will be affected for now. According to Bloomberg, affected employees will have until the end of the week to apply for other positions within the company. If they cannot find a new job, they will receive a severance payment of up to four months’ salary.
It’s said that initially, only a small number of employees in the administration and planning departments responsible for developing and maintaining their flagship stores would be affected. There are also talks of staff cuts at the management level, but some employees were only released and will keep their jobs.
At the end of the last fiscal year in September 2022, Apple employed 164,000 people. While the company reported record sales of $90.1 billion and significant growth in key markets in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2022, sales and earnings declined in the first fiscal quarter of 2023.
Apple is taking a last-resort measure to rationalize its operations in the face of declining sales and earnings.
