After Google, Meta, Amazon and other tech giants, iPhone-maker Apple is reportedly also cutting a small number of roles in its corporate retail teams. The number of jobs being eliminated is not clear yet but it is likely to be minimal.
According to Bloomberg News, the layoffs are expected to affect Apple's development and preservation teams. Another news report claims that Apple employees have been asked to reapply for their jobs or else they will be fired.
The groups that are most affected by the job cuts are responsible for the construction and upkeep of Apple retail stores and other facilities around the world, as per the Business Insider report.
Tech layoffs continue amid concerns about a potential economic downturn due to rising interest rates. The recession fear has already led to mass job cuts across various industries in recent months.
IBM spinoff Kyndryl is also cutting jobs. “We were informed of the layoffs on March 29. By evening we had to clear all dues and put in the papers. The company is offering 2- month severance,” a source told Business Today.
Fast food chain McDonalds has reportedly temporarily closed all its offices in the US this week as it prepares to inform its corporate employees about a fresh round of layoffs.
From the US to Europe and Asia, global tech giants including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SAP and more have laid off thousands of employees since the start of the year.
Earlier this year, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs in 2022, marking its second round of mass layoffs. In the first round, the company laid off 11,000 employees. Last month, IT giant Accenture announced 19,000 job cuts, which represents 2.5% of its workforce.
In January 2023, Microsoft said that it is letting go of 10,000 employees, and in October it confirmed an additional round of job cuts that reportedly affected nearly 1,000 workers. Google announced that it will lay off 12,000 people from its workforce.
Amazon conducted its largest layoffs in history in January this year, eliminating 18,000 roles. It is set to let go of 9,000 more workers in the coming weeks. Twitter, since CEO Elon Musk took over, has sacked more than 7,500 employees.
Indonesia’s GoTo Group, Singapore’s Seag-Group, Carousell, Berlin-based Foodpanda and South Korea’s Naver and Kakao are some of the other companies that have cut employees in the last few months. Germany’s SAP announced in January that it’s cutting up to 3,000 jobs.
A total of 553 tech companies have laid off 1,66,004 employees between January 1 and April 4 this year, compared with the 1,61,411 employees sacked in 2022. In 2022, a total of 1,052 tech companies had laid off 1,61,411 employees, according to layoffs.fyi.