Citing people with direct knowledge, The New York Post reported that the iPhone maker has quietly started to cut ties with hundreds of contractors. “Instead of waiting for contracts that are typically renewed every 12 to 15 months to expire, Apple is firing contractors outright,” the report said.
Reportedly, the number of contractor workforce being laid off is in the thousands.
Apple managing costs
Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook had called layoffs at the company a “last resort kind of thing”, adding that “You can never say never”. He told the Wall Street Journal that Apple is managing costs very tightly.
“We want to manage costs in other ways to the degree that we can,” he was quoted as saying.
Apple was hit by supply chain disruptions last year due to Covid 19-related restrictions at Foxconn’s main factory in China. Foxconn is one of Apple’s key suppliers.
Cook said that Covid-related challenges “significantly impacted the supply of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max and lasted through most of December”. As a result of a challenging environment, “our revenue was down 5 per cent year over year”, he added.
Apple did not overhire
Reports claimed that unlike companies like Google, Meta and Amazon, among others, Apple didn’t overhire during the pandemic. The employee count went up by about 7%in 2022 compared to 2021.
Last month, Cook took a huge pay cut of $35 million, or more than 40% of his compensation.
Tech layoffs
Technology companies fired thousands of employees due to economic uncertainty. While Google laid off 12,000 employees (or 6% of its team), Meta fired 11,000 workers, about 13% of its workforce, and Amazon also announced 18,000 job cuts.
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