Apple Begins Laying Off Third-Party Contractors ‘Quietly’: Report

The only Big Tech company that has avoided mass layoffs so far has reportedly started cutting ties with hundreds of third-party contractors quietly. “Instead of waiting for contracts that are typically renewed every 12 to 15 months to expire,” the iPhone maker has started “firing contractors outright,” the New York Post reported, citing sources.

Apple hasn’t posted any comments on the report yet.

According to the news agency, the recent layoffs concerning third-party contractors is a move to cut costs. Although Apple hasn’t revealed the size of its contractor workforce, reports suggest the actual number could be in the thousands.

CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the wave of hurdles facing the company on the latest quarterly earnings call. Although its earnings report wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, the company to date appeared to have sailed safely through the perfect storm of a pandemic, inflation, and a deadly war.

Cook described layoffs “as a last resort kind of thing”, adding “you can never say never.” Although the tech giant has curtailed hiring in certain areas, it continues to hire in other areas, the CEO further mentioned.

“We want to manage costs in other ways to the degree that we can,” he said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

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The CEO has already taken an over 40% cut to his compensation this year, approximately $35 million.

The company didn’t overhire during the pandemic, Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said. Its employee count went up by about 7% last year, compared to the year before.

Apple’s first-quarter results revealed that the company recorded a revenue of $117 billion, a 5% decline from the previous year. Pandemic-related restrictions imposed on manufacturing units in China were blamed for the drop in sales. Stringent regulations limited the supply of new iPhones during the energetic holiday season.

Nevertheless, Cook took an optimistic tone on the call, saying the supply chain issues that had made the availability of new iPhones scarce are now alleviated.

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