How Apple has avoided mass layoffs (so far)

Tech job cuts have dominated the headlines in recent weeks – according to aggregator layoffs.fyi, so far in 2023, almost 890,000 employees have been laid off in the tech sector. This is on top of the 160,000 tech workers that lost their jobs in 2022.

The layoffs are linked with a challenging financial situation and are happening at both small and large companies – a total of 1,314 tech employers have made job cuts since 2022.

But one company missing from the list is Apple.

It is now the only US tech giant to not have announced job cuts as a recession looms in 2023. Its peers Salesforce, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have all made layoff announcements this year.

Inside Apple’s Q1 earnings report

Late yesterday, Apple announced its first quarter (Q1) 2023 financial results.

While they were far from promising – its revenue was down 5% year-on-year to $117.2 billion (this is its first sales decline since 2019, according to Insider) – Apple CEO Tim Cook took an optimistic tone during a related earnings call.

“During the December quarter, we achieved a major milestone and are excited to report that we now have more than 2 billion active devices as part of our growing installed base,” stated Cook.

CFO Luca Maestri added: “We set an all-time revenue record of $20.8 billion in our Services business, and in spite of a difficult macroeconomic environment and significant supply constraints, we grew total company revenue on a constant currency basis”.

Cook took the opportunity to also discuss Apple’s approach to job cuts and lay offs: “whatever challenges we face; our strategy is always the same” – it’ll focus its investment on innovation and its people.

UNLEASH has reached out to Apple for comment, but is yet to receive a reply.

Of course, there is no certainty in what the economy will look like next week, let alone next quarter.

According to CNN, analysts predict that cost cutting efforts, including potential layoffs, could be on the horizon for Apple.

But these are unlikely to be less drastic than at other tech companies because Apple and Cook took a slower, more cautious approach to headcount growth during the boom times of COVID-19.

While Meta and Amazon doubled their headcount between 2019 and 2022, Apple only grew by 20%.

Sometimes slow and steady wins the race.

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