Apple has managed to avoid major job cuts as many tech giants have been executing an unprecedented amount of layoffs, even though it missed several of its lines of business announced during its first-quarter earnings.
The iPhone maker has reported its first quarterly revenue, which declined for the first time in nearly four years, with revenue of $117.2 billion that missed analyst expectations of $121.1 billion.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that there are ways to reduce costs, and that layoffs aren't the only answer.
Cook said that layoffs are a last resort kind of thing. We want to manage costs in other ways to the degree that we can. Cook said that the company is managing costs very tightly and is curtailing hiring in certain areas while continuing to hire others.
With the current volatile economic situation, Apple has been cautious while managing its resources.
The company added employees at a much slower pace than other tech companies during the epidemic. It tends to run lean, with limited employee perks, and businesses focused on hardware products, reports WSJ.
From its fiscal year end in September 2019 to September 2022, Apple's workforce grew by about 20% to around 164,000 full-time employees. In the same period, the employee count at Amazon.com, Inc increased by 53%, and Microsoft Corp's employee count increased by 53%.
Alphabet Inc and Meta Platform Inc saw their employee counts increase by 57% and 94%.
According to the report, Apple has more than 65,000 retail employees working in more than 500 stores, making up about 40% of the company's workforce.
Co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, when Apple's last major layoffs took place in 1997, when the company's co-founder, Steve Jobs, cut costs by firing 4,100 employees.
Tom Forte, senior research analyst at investment bank D.A., was quoted by The Wall Street Journal. Davidson Co. says he expects Apple to reduce headcount, but it might do that quietly through employee attrition by not replacing workers who leave. More than 18,000 employees were affected by Amazon's layoffs earlier this year. Microsoft is going to let 10,000 employees go, and Google has announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs.