Concerned about the looming recession, Apple has planned slow hiring and spending for some teams in 2023 to deal with the potential economic downturn. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that it will not be a company-wide policy.
Previously, the Cupertino tech giant slowed down hiring in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, when iPhone sales declined worldwide. But the company has never laid workers off, a policy it will adopt for 2023 as well.
Unlike other tech companies, Apple will not cut jobs
Normally Apple hires 5% to 10% more employees in a given year and allocates a budget for major divisions for resources, hiring, and spending on research and development.
Apple dedicated about $22 billion to R&D in fiscal 2021, up 17% from the prior year. At the end of that year, the company had about 154,000 employees.
In 2021, Apple’s capital expenditures topped $11 billion, a 52% increase from 2020, while overall operating expenses — which includes marketing spending, payroll and equipment costs — rose 13% last year to about $44 billion.
However, for 2023, the Cupertino tech giant will be reducing the budget and the headcount of select teams. It also plans to not rehire positions of the departing employees.
According to the report, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Snap Inc., and other tech companies have also cut their budget and hiring to deal with economic uncertainties. Tesla, Microsoft, and Meta have taken more extreme steps by cutting jobs which “Apple hasn’t historically done.”
Even with a looming recession, the Cupertino tech giant has a very ambitious product lineup for 2023. It is expected to launch a new AR/VR mixed reality headset, iPhone 15 with a periscope lens, 27-inch Studio Display Pro with mini-LED screen, 14-inch iPad Pro, new Apple Silicon Mac including 15-inch M2 MacBook, (14-inch and 16-inch) MacBook Pro powered by M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, 12-inch MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Air, and other products and services.
