Apple is planning to fire a small number of corporate retail employees on its development and preservation teams, says a Bloomberg report. The affected employees handle the construction and upkeep of Apple retail locations worldwide.
While it hasn’t been specified as to how many positions will be eliminated, Bloomberg says the cuts are “likely very small.” However, this is the first report we’ve seen saying Apple is culling its internal workforce to cut spending.
Apple did lay off up to 100 contractors that handled recruiting in June 2022, but contractors are not considered full-time workers. We’ve also seen cuts among engineers and security guards that were contractors.
Apple told employees that these were not layoffs and that the changes are intended to improve the upkeep of stores globally. Workers that have been axed will have the option to reapply for similar positions, and those who do not opt for a new role could receive up to four months of pay.
In November 2022, Apple paused hiring for most jobs outside of research and development, and in March of this year, Apple expanded the hiring freeze. For many teams, when employees leave, positions are not refilled. These moves have helped Apple to avoid the widespread layoffs that other tech companies have faced.
Twitter has laid off thousands of employees following the social network’s takeover by Elon Musk and Facebook has announced plans to lay off approximately 10,000 more employees. Meanwhile, Google parent company Alphabet laid off 12,000 employees back in January, and Microsoft made cuts to its AI ethics team last month, following several other layoffs at the firm.