In A ‘Rare’ Move, Apple Starts Firing Employees: 100 Contractual Employees Fired Due To Slowdown

Apple has reportedly sacked several contract-based recruiters in the past week, part of a push to rein in its hiring and spending.

About 100 contract workers were let go in what is a rare move on Apple’s part.

These recruiters were responsible for hiring new employees for Apple, and the cuts show that the company is in the midst of a slowdown.

Recruiters who are full-time employees were retained.

Two weeks of pay

Workers laid off were told that there had been changes in Apple’s current business needs.

Terminated contractors were told they would receive pay and medical benefits for two weeks.

Their employee badges were disabled and were instructed to email a list of their belongings they wanted back.

Bloomberg first reported last month that it was slowing hiring after years of staffing up, joining many tech companies in freezing hiring.

“Deliberate” spending

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook confirmed that Apple was going to be more “deliberate” in its spending — even as it keeps investing in some areas.

He told analysts that the firm believes in investing through the downturn.

To that end it will “continue to hire people and invest in areas, but we are being more deliberate in doing so in recognition of the realities of the environment.”

This is an unusual development for the company which employs more than 150,000 people.

However it is not the only one in the industry.

Unfavorable economic environment

In recent months, Meta Platforms Inc., Tesla Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Oracle Corp. have all eliminated jobs in the face of a spending slowdown.

These eminent American companies are all facing the same situation.

Raging inflation, rising interest rates along with recent data from the US government showing economic contraction for the second consecutive quarter are some factors driving fears of a recession in the country.

It is this sort of environment which is pushing the wealthiest companies to lay off en masse.

Apple’s layoffs took place across many regions, including at Apple’s offices in Texas and Singapore.

Laying off Siri team in 2019

The last time it had fired a large group of contract workers was in 2019 in Cork, Ireland.

Back then Apple had been relying on several hundred contractors to listen to recordings of Siri conversations to help improve the product.

They were let go as part of scaling down the program in response to privacy concerns.

Fewer protections for contractors

Like many others, Apple employs contract workers for tasks such as technical support and customer service.

The contractors also render services such as localizing products and improving its Maps service.

They typically receive fewer benefits than full-time workers and have fewer protections.