There have been mass layoffs at every other tech company, namely Twitter, Amazon, Meta, and Google, but somehow there is no news on Apple layoffs. Thousands of workers have been laid off around the world due to uncertain macroeconomic conditions; the world is in chaos, and the economy is slowly crumbling. Do Apple employees really have their jobs secured, or is this just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode? Let’s find out.
Google has recently fired 11,000 workers, while the numbers at Microsoft remain at 10,000. Apple is the only major tech company that appears to be avoiding layoffs. Nothing can be said with certainty until February 2nd when Apple will release its earnings call for the last quarter. So far, it seems like they have no plans to fire employees. A pertinent question is whether Whether is better off financially than its competitors.
October 2022 marks the start of major layoffs at Twitter. As Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of his first escapades was to fire half of Twitter’s workforce. Tumbling down like dominoes, Meta soon announced layoffs as they let go of over 10,000 employees amongst various divisions, which had met with huge losses. Reality Labs, which is a meta-bifurcate and aids in Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse project, isn’t doing very well either.
Amazon was quick to follow in its footsteps, letting go of over 18,000 employees. Their word for the reason was “poor global economy” for such a “drastic and disheartening” decision. Echo speakers took a big hit due to layoffs. Google is the latest tech giant to commence global layoffs and has already let go of around 11,000 workers. Rumour has it that if the situation doesn’t improve, more people might be laid off.
Likewise, several companies based in the United States of America named – Adobe, HP, Snap, Salesforce, etc. have followed the path of letting employees go like dominoes to cut costs.
Lately – there have been talks about Apple being immune to a slow economy. As per reports from AppleInsider, the company has fired a few of its retail executives, but the average headcount doesn’t seem to be above 100. As per research, the last mass layoff was in 1997, when approx of 4100 employees were laid off with Steve Jobs returning as Apple’s chief.
In case one was wondering, what’s the big reason for so many multinational tech giants resorting to mass layoffs? The biggest reason is overhiring during the pandemic. During the peak Covid-19 season, everyone was under strict lockdowns, which resulted in people spending more time online. Tech companies saw this as an opportunity to overhire and expand their operations.
Microsoft had 221,000 full-time employees in June 2022, up 40,000 from the same time in 2021, according to SEC filings (via Moneycontrol). Microsoft increased employment by 18,000, or 11%, the year before. Similarly to this, Amazon increased economic activity by 38% from 2020 to 310,000 jobs last year.
Google and Meta have also expanded their workforces significantly in the last two years, adding approximately 34,000 employees (13,000 for Meta and 21,000 for Google) in 2021. These figures highlight the rapid growth of the tech industry, with companies competing to secure top talent and expand their operations.
Nevertheless, between 2020 and 2022, Apple made careful hiring decisions. Apple had 164,000 employees as of September 2022, a 6.5% rise compared to the same time in 2021. Apple barely recruited 7,000 people between 2020 and 2021. This might be because Apple consistently prioritizes hardware rather than software like Google does, and since selling iPhones, Macs, and iPads accounts for the majority of Apple’s earnings.
While Apple may continue to operate with the same staff while growing the manufacturing of its hardware, an increase in the demand for services often leads to a rise in recruitment. Therefore, Apple can increase its profits without significantly increasing its employee count, resulting in fewer hires than other companies that focus on services instead of products.
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