In break from trend, Apple lays off 600 workers in California
Move driven by shutdown of car, smartwatch display projects; Apple was among a few companies that refrained from job cuts last year
American multinational Apple Inc. has laid off more than 600 employees in California after deciding to shut down its car and smartwatch display projects going by the company’s filings with the California Employment Development Department.
Apple was one of the companies that refrained from sacking any of its employees last year when most of the big tech firms laid off almost 68,000 workers.
A report by Bloomberg about the current layoffs said that the Cupertino-based company had to file several reports with the state of California in order to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) programme. The California law makes it compulsory for companies to file a report for every address in the state that includes employees affected by a layoff.
Apple seems to have started shutting down the two ambitious projects in February this year. Both the projects were initiatives to either enter into new areas with sizeable potential or to further the company’s technologies.
The car project was cancelled because those steering it were not convinced about the cost involved and the direction it was headed. The firm decided to wind down the display programme because of challenges it faced with suppliers, engineering, and cost.
According to the filed reports, 371 employees were laid off at the company’s main car-related office in Santa Clara, California while the remaining were working in multiple satellite offices. Apple managed to relocate some of those in the car project to other teams working in the areas of personal robotics or artificial intelligence, thus saving some jobs.
There isn’t full clarity on the total number of employees that have been laid off in both projects because Apple had many engineers working in other states, which it is not entitled to disclose as part of the WARN programme.