Apple plans to lay off a small portion of its retail team responsible for development and maintenance, according to a Bloomberg report. These employees are primarily responsible for building and maintaining Apple’s retail stores around the world.
It’s unclear how many jobs Apple will cut, but Bloomberg says the size of the layoffs “could be very small. However, this is the first time Apple has cut back on its internal workforce as a result of spending cuts. in June 2022, the company fired about 100 contract workers responsible for hiring, but the contract workers were not full-time employees. Apple also laid off some engineers and security guards who worked as contract workers.
Apple told employees that these were not layoffs, but rather streamlining, with the goal of improving store maintenance worldwide. Employees who are laid off can reapply for positions similar to their previous jobs and may receive compensation equal to up to four months’ salary if they do not find a new role.
Apple suspended hiring for most positions outside of research and development in November, and in March of this year, Apple expanded its hiring freeze. For many teams, Apple has halted hiring, leaving positions open when employees leave. The slowdown in hiring has allowed Apple to avoid the widespread layoffs that other tech companies have announced in recent months.
Twitter fired thousands of employees after its acquisition by Elon Musk, and last month, Facebook announced plans to lay off about 10,000 employees. Microsoft laid off its artificial intelligence ethics team in March, after several layoffs. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, laid off 12,000 employees in January of this year.
