MacRumors says its been receiving numerous reports over the past few weeks that Apple is indeed beginning to lay off many of its employees — particularly those who have been employed there for six months or less — in retail stores across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Part-time employees are also facing cutbacks in hours.
On the other hand, the same report talks about how Apple recently began issuing increases in salaries for its retail stores workers among some other benefits. Still, that doesn’t make up for the fact that every single employee at one United Kingdom store, for example, was laid off if they worked there for less than six months. Some employees were even promoted, didn’t receive their raises, and then demoted back to their original position.
These types of reports are coming in by the bunches. There’s no way to confirm them, but it’s difficult to bill them all as just a mere coincidence.
So what’s going on with Apple? The richest company in the world should be able to afford the extra employees rather than laying them off, right? While it’s very common for Apple’s employee numbers to differentiate during the seasons according to when it has product launches, the new iPhone is right around the corner, so one might assume Apple would be looking for more employees instead of less.
It seems like a bit of a greedy move on Apple’s part, although perhaps Apple doesn’t need as many retail store employees to handle the new iPhone launch (or current price cuts) as initially expected.