Apple Begins Layoffs; Cuts At Least 600 Jobs (Photo by Hussam Abd on Unsplash)In February, Apple cancelled its plans to make an electric car. The tech giant also reportedly halted its ambitious project to develop microLED technology for smartwatch displays. At the same time, the latest filings with the California Employment Development Department indicate that the iPhone maker laid off more than 600 employees in California.
Tech giants, including Amazon and Google, have been laying off employees recently. Notably, Apple has remained on the sidelines, and it has not laid off a large number of employees. According to a CNBC report, the latest layoff will be Apple’s first significant round of job cuts since the pandemic. The report, citing the WARN notice posted by California, mentioned that Apple employees affected by the latest job cuts worked at eight different facilities in Santa Clara.
According to CNBC, none of the locations in the filing are at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, but at smaller satellite offices. As per the filing, the changes will be effective on May 27. The employees were also officially informed of the layoffs on March 28.
Meanwhile, according to 9to5Mac, the iPhone maker is laying off 58 employees from one of its offices in Santa Clara. It is worth mentioning that this office belonged to a company that Apple acquired in 2014. 9to5Mac reported that the company named LuxVue Technology is specialising in micro-LED displays.
Apple has not made any official comment about the exact number of employees affected by the layoffs. Also, the WARN notices filed with the state do not disclose the full scope of the job reductions, as the notice only reflect job losses in California.
Nearly 2,000 employees were working on Apple’s electric car project, under the codename Project Titan. When the company decided to end this project, several employees working on it were reportedly shifted to Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) division. The latest layoff indicates that everyone working on the car project did not get the chance to be reassigned.