Apple Park is reportedly not the draw it once was, impacting recruitment and retention efforts

Apple Park
Apple Park (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple is reportedly working to open more offices and recruit more people beyond Silicon Valley.
  • Apple's focus on home base has reportedly impacted recruitment and retention efforts due to the high cost of living in the area.

Apple is reportedly working to move some of its work beyond Silicon Valley after it became clear that Apple Park is no longer the draw it once was. Employee recruitment and retention are proving to be a problem for the company, with the high cost of living associated with Silicon Valley reportedly the culprit.

Writing in his new Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple is finding it difficult to recruit people — and then keep them — because people are unable to juggle the cost of living in Cupertino and surrounding areas with being able to save for college fees and other necessities. This despite Apple paying well, comparatively.

The company has been losing talent who, despite being high earners by most standards, have said they could barely afford the extraordinary cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many engineers lamented that they couldn't balance living expenses with other pursuits like college tuition for their children and long-term savings.

The newsletter goes on to say that some of Apple's teams have already expanded beyond Apple Park and even the United States in recent years, with that Apple now looking to accelerate the move. Head of custom silicon Johny Srouji, services chief Eddy Cue, and head of people Deirdre O'Brien are said to be at the forefront of the expansion, citing cost savings, diversity benefits, and more.

Apple is already building new offices in Austin, Texas while hiring sprees are underway in multiple countries including the UK, Canada, and Germany. However, Apple will continue to require employees to work from its offices wherever they are, rather than opening up to full remote work as other companies have in recent times.

Apple is expected to announce iPhone 13 this coming September, a device that is sure to be the best iPhone the company has ever produced. It's getting closer, folks!

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.