On Wednesday, Microsoft introduced it was shedding 10,000 individuals. Alphabet added to the distress with one other 12,000 this morning. We’ve beforehand seen 18,000 jobs lower at Amazon and one other 11,000 at Meta. You might additionally throw in Salesforce, which slashed 7,000 jobs at the start of the month.
You’ll discover one firm is conspicuously lacking from this wretched checklist, and that’s Apple, which at the least till now, has remained on the sidelines in terms of layoffs.
It’s price noting that the corporate hasn’t had a historical past of huge layoffs, and the final massive one was again in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to run issues and laid off 4,100 workers. That was a time when Apple was in dire straits, earlier than Jobs led an enormous turnaround that started a gentle march to the corporate we see in the present day.
One of many largest causes we’ve heard for these layoffs has been over hiring, because the chart beneath illustrates:
| Firm |
Worker numbers at time of layoffs |
Worker progress 2020-2021 | Workers laid off |
| Amazon | 1.5 million | 800,000 | 18,000 |
| Alphabet | 187,000 | 52,000 | 12,000 |
| Meta | 87,000 | 27,000 | 11,000 |
| Microsoft | 221,000 | 58,000 | 10,000 |
| Apple | 164,000 | 17,000 | – |
Supply: Macrotrends. Click on worker progress numbers to entry supply information.
These corporations grew like gangbusters throughout the top of the pandemic for varied causes, relying on the corporate, however every boosted their worker base considerably over the interval between 2020 and 2022. Because the financial system slowed all through 2022, these corporations determined it was time to make a correction, and we’ve seen these large layoffs because of this.
Whereas the opposite organizations have been including gobs of workers, Apple has employed at a way more modest charge than its giant tech firm counterparts, including solely 17,000 workers throughout 2020-2022. Maybe as a result of it didn’t herald so many workers because the others, that might account for the truth that it has but to make massive layoffs.
The one layoff information so removed from Apple was a reasonably modest one. In August Forbes reported that the corporate quietly laid off 100 contract tech recruiters. In an organization of greater than 160,000 workers, that feels insignificant, but it surely might have been an indication that at the least the corporate was slowing hiring.
And that’s precisely what occurred when the corporate introduced a hiring freeze in November. Whereas Apple indicated that it meant to maintain hiring in sure roles, it was a basic freeze as a response to the general financial uncertainty that each one these corporations are reacting to.
The shifting financial local weather, and total uncertainty heading into the brand new yr, has additionally been a giant driver of the job cuts, however Apple has prevented utilizing layoffs as a device so far.
All that mentioned, with Apple scheduled to report earnings on February 1, we’ll in all probability get a clearer image of the corporate’s total monetary efficiency. No person can predict what is going to occur right here, and positively given the general sample of layoffs we’ve seen just lately on the different corporations, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to count on one thing related, however maybe their hiring prudence will assist stop a comparable destiny and Apple will spare its workers from this trauma.
