Apple has avoided the mass layoffs that other tech titans have unleashed of late, but the Californian giant may be inching closer to a round of firings, as reports suggest it has quietly begun axing contractors.

Hundreds of contractors have been fired before the end of their current contracts, On The Money reports, a cost-cutting move that isn’t technically a mass firing, as the workers are from third-party companies.

Just a fortnight ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed talk of firings, telling the Wall Street Journal, “I view layoffs as a last resort kind of thing,” while admitting: “You can never say never. We want to manage costs in other ways to the degree that we can.”

This month, Apple reported its first year-on-year decline since 2019, and its biggest decline since 2016.

Firing contractors seems like a step towards that last resort kind of thing.