Lean hiring policies and not giving staff free lunches has helped Apple avoid the savage job cuts that have impacted rivals including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.
The California computer giant’s workforce grew just 20 per cent in the past three years – far less than their competition, who have been hit hard with necessary layoffs in order to stay in the game.
Still, with Apple expected to report their first quarterly sales decline in three years next month, many wonder how long they can stay immune to the plague.
The reason Apple have maintained a better position to their rivals is because they brought in new employees at a far slower rate during the pandemic. They also offer limited work perks, such as the free lunches on corporate campuses like workers at Google and Meta enjoy.
That can really add up when you consider the number of employees in question. From fiscal year-end in September 2019 to September 2020, Apple’s workforce grew about 20 per cent to around 164,000 full-time employees.
In about the same period Amazon’s workforce doubled and Microsoft’s grew 53 per cent, while Google’s parent company Alphabet expanded 57 per cent, and Meta took on an extra 94 per cent. All up, that’s a lot of cheese sandwiches to dole out.
Google have announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs, with sackings expected in Australia. All up, the tech industry has seen more than 200,000 layoffs since the beginning of 2022.
Apple haven’t seen a major round of layoffs since 1997, when co-founder Steve Jobs returned to the company and 4100 staff were let go to cut costs.
