Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation.
| Photo Credit: AP

Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation.

The iPhone maker notified 614 workers in multiple offices on March 28 that they were losing their jobs, with the layoffs becoming effective on May 27, according to reports to regional authorities.

The workers were cut from eight offices in Santa Clara, according to the filings under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as WARN. But it’s not clear which departments or projects the employees were involved in.

Also Read | Apple working on personal robot that can follow people around their homes: Report

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.

The Cupertino, California, company had been a notable exception as other tech companies slashed their workforces over the past two years. There was a massive surge in hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people spent more time and money online, and big tech companies are still larger than they were before the pandemic. Still, as growth slows, companies are focusing on cutting costs to bolster their bottom lines.

Amazon announced earlier this week a fresh round of layoffs, this time at its cloud computing business AWS.

In recent months, video game maker Electronic Arts said it’s cutting about 5% of its workforce, Sony said its axing about 900 jobs in its PlayStation division, Cisco Systems revealed plans to lay off more than 4,000 workers and social media company Snap, owner of Snapchat, announced its slashing 10% of its global workforce.

Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation.
| Photo Credit: AP

Apple is laying off more than 600 workers in California, marking the company’s first big wave of post-pandemic job cuts amid a broader wave of tech industry consolidation.

The iPhone maker notified 614 workers in multiple offices on March 28 that they were losing their jobs, with the layoffs becoming effective on May 27, according to reports to regional authorities.

The workers were cut from eight offices in Santa Clara, according to the filings under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as WARN. But it’s not clear which departments or projects the employees were involved in.

Also Read | Apple working on personal robot that can follow people around their homes: Report

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.

The Cupertino, California, company had been a notable exception as other tech companies slashed their workforces over the past two years. There was a massive surge in hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people spent more time and money online, and big tech companies are still larger than they were before the pandemic. Still, as growth slows, companies are focusing on cutting costs to bolster their bottom lines.

Amazon announced earlier this week a fresh round of layoffs, this time at its cloud computing business AWS.

In recent months, video game maker Electronic Arts said it’s cutting about 5% of its workforce, Sony said its axing about 900 jobs in its PlayStation division, Cisco Systems revealed plans to lay off more than 4,000 workers and social media company Snap, owner of Snapchat, announced its slashing 10% of its global workforce.

Apple is working on releasing an update for the iPhone 12. (File)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Apple said on Tuesday it planned to comply with France’s radiation testing requirements by rolling out an update that will stop the iPhone 12 from using more power when the device is in contact with static surfaces.

Apple has disputed the findings of French regulators who said that the iPhone 12, which has been on the market for three years, gave off more than permissible amounts of radiation and halted sales of the device.

On Tuesday, Apple gave its fullest explanation yet of the discrepancy between France’s findings and those in other countries where the iPhone 12 has been approved for sale.

In an article posted on its website, Apple said that for more than a decade, iPhones have included sensors that allow the phone to detect when it is near a user’s body to keep transmission power at lower levels. When the phone is not near a body – such as when it is laid on a table – the device uses slightly higher levels of transmission power.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

Apple said that the testing protocol used by L’Agence Nationale des Frequences did not take this feature into account. The company issued a software update that will become broadly available to users in France this month that turns off the body-detection technology, keeping the phone at lower transmission power levels at all times.

In a statement, Apple said that the iPhone 12 is still safe to use even without the software update.

“We want all iPhone 12 users to know that iPhone 12 is safe to use and always has been. IPhone 12 was certified to meet applicable worldwide energy transmission regulations and standards when it first shipped in 2020 and no changes have been made since then that would affect energy transmission,” Apple said in the statement.