Apple to slow hiring and spending next year

Apple is planning to slow hiring and spending next year to cope with a potential global economic downturn. Goldman Sachs also hinted at job cuts on the grounds of deterioration of the economic outlook. Many multinational companies are shifting their management stance towards emergency management.

On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that Apple plans to reduce hiring next year and to cut spending for some teams. Apple indicated that it would keep certain positions unfilled even if there are vacancies, and recruitment itself would be suspended for some teams. The Bloomberg reported that an anonymous source of Apple said the plan to reduce hiring is targeting only some divisions and is not a company-wide policy.

It is unprecedented for Apple which, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, reported good performance beyond market expectation, allocated huge sums of money for research and development, and hired employees, takes a defensive position. Apple’s shift to slowing hiring means that it takes on a gloomy economic outlook. Bloomberg News analyzed that such decision by Apple “stems from a move to be more careful during uncertain times.” After the hiring plan was reported, Apple shares fell 2.1% from a day earlier, and the New York Stock Exchange turned sharply lower.

Apple is not the only company that decided to slow hiring to cope with a possible economic downturn. Earlier, Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla put a lid on hiring. Google also announced that it would scale back on new hires in the second half of this year.


Hyoun-Soo Kim kimhs@donga.com