Apple to Slow Hiring, Spending Growth for Some Teams Next Year: Report

Apple intends to slow hiring and spending growth next year in some units to cope with a potential economic downturn, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The changes will not 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, the report said.

Shares of the company, which did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, reversed course to trade down nearly a percent at $148.95 (nearly Rs. 11,900).

Apple is the latest company with plans to slow hiring, joining Meta Platforms, Tesla and a number of the US banks as they prepare for a potential economic slowdown.

Earlier this month, Facebook-owner Meta Platforms cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30 percent this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees, as he warned them to brace for a deep economic downturn.

“If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,” Zuckerberg told workers in a weekly employee Q&A session, audio of which was heard by Reuters.

Meta has reduced its target for hiring engineers in 2022 to around 6,000-7,000, down from an initial plan to hire about 10,000 new engineers, Zuckerberg said.

The company confirmed hiring pauses in broad terms last month, but exact figures have not previously been reported.

In addition to reducing hiring, he said, the company was leaving certain positions unfilled in response to attrition and “turning up the heat” on performance management to weed out staffers unable to meet more aggressive goals.

© Thomson Reuters 2022