Apple employees rest easy — Tim Cook says mass layoffs aren't on the cards

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Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company isn't planning on the mass layoffs that have so far blighted the tech industry.

Cook's comments came as Apple shared its Q2 2023 results in which revenue of $94.8 billion was a slight reduction on the previous year.

But that doesn't mean that Apple employees should be looking over their shoulder, Cook suggests.

A last resort

Cook's comments came in an interview with CNBC in which he said that mass layoffs were not something Apple had considered while adding that such a thing was only something that would be used if there was absolutely no other option.

“I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment,” Cook told CNBC.

That alone means that Apple stands out among its contemporaries. Google, Amazon, and Meta have laid off thousands of employees of late but it doesn't sound like those with an Apple badge should be too concerned right now.

This will no doubt be good news for employees that are getting ready to launch multiple new products before the end of the year. The WWDC23 event will likely see the 15-inch MacBook Air and Reality Pro headset debut, for example. And in September Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15. The best iPhone of the year, the iPhone 15 Pro, is also expected to be unveiled at the same time and sport a new design and Action button.

This isn't to say that Apple hasn't been immune to the layoff frenzy, however. The company did make changes last month, doing away with a number of roles within its corporate retail teams according to reports. However, the numbers affected were nothing like those at other companies working in the same tech space as Apple.

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.