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Apple to make layoffs only as a ‘last resort,’ says CEO Tim Cook
In April, the tech giant reportedly laid off a ‘small number’ of workers from one of its retail teams.
Layoffs at Apple, if any, will be made only as a ‘last resort,’ according to CEO Tim Cook, with his statement coming at a time when fellow giants, including, among others, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Amazon, have released thousands of employees over the past few months.
“I view that (layoffs) as a last resort, and so mass layoffs is not something that we're talking about at this moment,” Cook told CNBC's Steve Kovach in an interview.
Cook, however, acknowledged that the tech giant was cutting costs, and had slowed its pace of hiring. The company, he remarked, was being ‘extremely prudent’ on hiring.
“We're continuing to hire, just at a lower clip level than we were before. And we are doing all the right things of challenging the things that we spend, and we are just finding a few more ways to save on it,” said the 62-year-old executive.
In fact, according to CNBC, one of the reasons why Apple is in a much better position than its rivals in terms of not having to terminate employees is because the company slowed down recruitment during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite this, it continues to be extremely profitable. On Thursday, the Cook-helmed organisation came out with its March quarter earnings report, revealing a net income of $24.16 billion during the quarter, where as it made $25. 01 billion in the year-earlier period. Its total revenue for the March quarter stood at $94.84 billion, including $51.33 billion from iPhones alone.
In April, meanwhile, Apple, according to reports, laid off a ‘small number’ of people from one of its retail teams.
