Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is poised to cut staff in its retail teams, joining the likes of Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in slimming down operations.
It had held off sacking full-time staff, despite beginning a cost-cutting drive last year which has seen it leave newly opened positions unfilled, reduce hirings and delay bonuses.
It will now join global technology peers in responding to economic slowdown fears by shifting staff, however, after chief executive Tim Cook said cuts would be a “last resort” in February.
150,000 tech sector workers have been laid off this year so far, according to tracker Layoffs.fyi, as companies look to backtrack after over investing during a pandemic-driven boom in online activity.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is not set to commit to mass layoffs on the same scale as Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com Inc, Meta and Microsoft, which have collectively cut around 70,000 in recent months, but will lose its label as one of the few to avoid sackings so far.