Tech Giant That Avoided Layoffs Reportedly Makes First Job Cuts

The biggest technology company in the world is now one of the last to issue layoffs.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is now cutting a “very small number” of positions from its corporate retail teams. The cuts have not been officially announced. Employees will have until the end of the week to reapply to other positions at the company, and those who aren’t reassigned will receive up to four months severance pay, according to Bloomberg. 

Apple has reportedly let go of hundreds of contractors in the past year but these staff cuts would be the first internal employees laid off. 

The tech titan was the most notable entry on the list of 100 companies that had not laid off workers in the past year as of March 1. During the pandemic, Apple was one of the few big tech companies that did not scale quickly, only increasing its headcount by 20% between 2019 and 2022. Amazon, by contrast, nearly doubled its workforce and Alphabet—Google’s parent company—saw a 60% gain. 

READ MORE: Tech Scaled Too Quickly—and Now the Bay Area Is Paying the Price

Apple is Silicon Valley’s largest tech employer, with an estimated 25,000 workers in the Bay Area as of 2020. Nearly half work in the company’s Cupertino headquarters. 

Though Apple’s first internal layoffs are notable, the company has not cut staff in a major way like other tech firms. Amazon’s recent layoffs hit 27,000 last month, while Meta’s staff cuts now number 21,000.