Bloomberg News reports that Apple Inc. laid off contract-based recruiters last week, in a move to curb expenses related to hiring and spending, as per individuals aware of the matter. Around 100 workers working on the contract were released in a move that is quite rare in the company’s practices. The recruiters had the responsibility of recruiting new employees for Apple. The cuts, however, reflect that a slowdown is likely occurring in the company.
The workers that were asked to leave were informed that the changes had to occur since the company’s business needs are different now. Bloomberg News first reported in the past month that the company was slowing down recruitment following years of staffing up. As such, the company is hitting the brakes now. Tim Cook, the Chief Executive Officer, revealed that it would be a more “deliberate” approach for the company as far as spending is concerned, despite investing in certain other areas.
What about the Full-Time Employees?
Bloomberg News also reports that the company continues to retain full-time workers and that not all the contractors were asked to leave as part of the move. An Apple spokesman did not comment related to the decision.
The measure to lay off the workers is unfamiliar to Cupertino, the California-based company, and it employs 150,000 people in this giant company. In recent months, Tesla Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Oracle Corp., and Microsoft Corp have all cut down jobs in the event of a slowdown in the tech segment.
The terminated contractors were informed that they would receive payment and medical benefits for two weeks. Employees’ badges got disabled. The workers were also told that if they had belongings they wanted back, they must draw up a list of the same in email. The recruiters were released across several areas, including offices of Apple in Singapore and Texas.
Apple removed a large group of workers working on contract in 2019 in Ireland’s Cork. During that time, the company relied on several hundred contractors to listen to the recordings of the Siri conversations to improve the product. Apple allowed the workers to leave as part of the downsizing program amidst privacy concerns. The company has fired a few contractors working in 2015 at the Apple Park Campus.
Bloomberg News reports that just like many other nations, Apple recruits contract workers for customer service and technical support tasks. It also comprises contractors for improving the Maps service and for localizing products. The contract receives fewer benefits than the full-time workers and fewer protections.
