Apple Inc. is planning to slow down hiring and spending next year in some sectors, to better manage the looming economic downturn, according to a report from Bloomberg News. An unnamed number of anonymous sources with “knowledge of the matter” reportedly told Bloomberg about the forthcoming stall.
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From Bloomberg:
The decision stems from a move to be more careful during uncertain times, though it isn’t a companywide policy, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The changes won’t affect all teams, and Apple is still planning an aggressive product launch schedule in 2023 that includes a mixed-reality headset, its first major new category since 2015.
Apple did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. The company’s stock value is down more than 18% so far this year. However, Apple reported positive quarterly earnings at the end of April, with revenue up 9% over 2021.
The company’s current alleged hiring and spending slows come at a time when many major tech employers are enacting hiring freezes and even layoffs. Last week, Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company) sent a letter to employees announcing its own hiring slowdown. Earlier this summer, Meta outlined plans to slash hiring by 30%. Shortly after, the social media giant began advising managers to cut lower performing staff. And Twitter laid off a third of its hiring team 10 days ago. Netflix has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs.
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Smaller tech companies and startups seem to be suffering even more amid current economic conditions. Electric scooter company Bird, for instance, recently axed almost a quarter of its total staff. Online education platform, MasterClass, cut 20% of its workers. The list goes on (PayPal) and on (Cameo).
And you might note that none of the above directly touches on the chaos, mass layoffs, and shut-downs happening in the cryptocurrency and blockchain spheres.
For years, the technology sector has seemed nearly immune to economic drops as the Silicon Valley boom continued unabated. But now—facing the combined forces of an unending worldwide pandemic, global supply chain disruption, Russia’s war in Ukraine, massive U.S. inflation, and the threat of recession growing ever-closer—we seem to be firmly in more of a Silicon slump era.
