Apple Inc. is cutting approximately 100 jobs within its services division, marking a shift in strategic priorities for a segment critical to the company’s growth.
This move, according to reports, reflects a realignment within the group led by Senior Vice President Eddy Cue.
The affected employees, who were notified on Tuesday, worked across several teams in the services division.
The layoffs, which have not been publicly disclosed, included engineering positions, with the most significant reductions occurring in the team responsible for the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore.
Other affected areas include the team overseeing Apple News, Bloomberg first reported.
Apple Books has been deprioritised within the company’s services portfolio, despite plans for future feature updates, according to sources. Conversely, the cuts in the Apple News team do not indicate a reduced focus on the platform, they added.
This latest round of layoffs follows earlier job cuts by Apple as part of a broader wave of tech industry consolidation. In April, the company laid off more than 600 workers in California, marking its first significant post-pandemic job reductions.
What to know
According to reports submitted to regional authorities, Apple notified 614 employees across multiple offices on 28 March, with the layoffs becoming effective on 27 May.
These employees were cut from eight offices in Santa Clara, but it remains unclear which departments or projects were impacted.
In February, Apple cancelled its multibillion-dollar plans to develop an electric car, signalling a pivot towards artificial intelligence programs. Executives indicated layoffs could be expected for some staff due to this shift in focus.
- Apple’s electric vehicle initiative, initially aimed at creating a fully self-driving car, struggled with shifting goals and failed to produce a viable product amidst staff turnover and missed deadlines.
- The recent layoffs at Apple contribute to a larger trend within the tech sector. In July 2024 alone, there were 4,306 layoffs across the industry, and so far this year, more than 100,900 workers have been laid off across 356 tech companies, according to tracking website Layoffs.fyi.
- After laying off hundreds of staff, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai earlier told the company’s workers to brace for more job cuts as the tech giant continues to implement more cost-cutting measures across its operations.
- Pichai said the layoffs this year were about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas.” He confirmed what many inside Google have been fearing: that more “role eliminations” are to come.
- This shows that due to the cross-functional nature of some roles within the services division, other teams have also been indirectly impacted.
The company’s restructuring efforts and job reductions highlight the ongoing challenges and adjustments faced by tech companies as they navigate a rapidly changing economic landscape.
