Apple stands tall amid a spate of large-scale employee layoffs by tech giants, still hiring though in a selective way.
The Cupertino-based tech major’s calibrated and conservative hiring strategy in recent years is cited as the reason for the iconic company to become a notable exception in terms of employee management, industry experts said.
Job postings by the company were down by 11 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
In contrast, Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, which announced eliminating as many as 12,000 jobs – or six percent of the company’s workforce, last month, had its job postings increase by 13 percent in 2022 over 2021, GlobalData said.
In fact, job postings for tech jobs were up by 25 percent from January to October of 2022 vis-à-vis the same year-ago period, despite talks of anticipated large-scale employee reduction plans by several companies, especially in the tech sector, according to a tech job report by career marketplace Dice.
By January 2023, however, an estimated over 50,000 job cuts either took place or were announced just by tech giants such as Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, HP, Uber and the like.
Dell joined the growing list of technology companies, announcing on Monday eliminating as many 6,650 jobs – or about five percent of its global workforce.
Apple hiring strategy
Apple, on the other hand, is still hiring, though in a selective way.
“Apple has not only not announced any layoffs recently but in fact still continues with job postings, though selective in its hiring process with focus on key areas and geographies,” Sherla Sriprada, business fundamentals analyst at GlobalData, said.
She said the exceptional case of Apple could be attributed to various factors such as the company’s financial performance and strategic priorities.
Data shows that job postings by Apple in China declined by 30 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, which is much higher than compared to the US which registered an 8 percent decline.
An analysis of GlobalData’s job analytics database showed that some of Apple’s focus areas for current hiring are artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, sales, wireless systems, 4G/5G/6G, and iOS/android.
Some of the job postings also indicate Apple’s focus on improving its supply chain.
“Apple has a reputation for prioritising its employees. As a result, layoffs may not be seen as the preferred solution for the company, even in times of economic uncertainty,” a Dubai-based human resource expert said.
GlobalData’s Sriprada said the company may have decided to prioritise investment in research and development, or to focus on expanding its product offerings, rather than cutting costs through layoffs.
“That’s what makes Apple stand out from the lot. It’s in a class of its own,” the HR expert said.
Senior executives at staffing solutions firms said the major reason for the recent layoffs is the over-hiring that took place in 2021.
“Though worrying macroeconomic factors, coupled with a funding winter accentuated the process [of layoffs], the extra flab that enterprises had gained in 2021 and before is the element to focus on,” an official at a Delhi-based staffing solutions firm said.
Globally, 930 tech companies have laid off 146,407 employees in 2022, according to Layoffs.fyi website, which compiles data from public reports and tracks layoffs.
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