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Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

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Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#191

Post by gpt5 »

thexumaker wrote: post #190
gpt5 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll need to some some algebra + this source https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/our-workforce-dat... Global workforce as of end of 2021: 44.8% women, 55.2% men Only field and customer support: 48.3% women, 51.7% men Corporate Employees: 32.8% women, 67.2% men you get the following two equations: 44.8% (global_women) = corp_employees * 32.8% + field_employees * 48.3% 55.2% (global_men) = corp_employees * 67.…

ty for actually doing the math. Saying Amazon only hired warehouse workers as part of their headcount doubling was completely bs. Their new grad pipeline alone probably accounted for more than 5-10k hires during that period(Assuming ~20% corp_employees and ~780k new hires.

Your numbers are based on wrong assumptions.

What I calculated is the absolute ratio. when looking at new hires you need to look at turnover. Turnover rate is significantly higher for field jobs (sometimes intentionally, e.g. Amazon always hire more people before the holidays for a term). Therefore, when looking at new hires, the ratio is skewed even more towards field workers.

At the end of the day, Amazon has around 300K corp emplyees, of those, they are laying off 18K+. This 6% ratio is similar to other tech companies.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#192

Post by alxhill »

valleyer wrote: post #67
microtherion wrote: post #58

I don't recall whether this was ever stated explicitly, but I always had the impression that this is one of the elements of Apple's strategy that is still driven by the tribal memory of the late 1990s turmoil. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were there at the time, and especially the former (who also had witnessed a 1980s bust) was determined to never be in this position again. So as a consequence: * Apple is hoarding c…

This is all true, but > not nearly as much so as in the pre-iOS times, admittedly deserves better than a parenthetical. Zoom out, and Apple's been on a serious hiring binge for the last decade, from 72,800 employees in 2012 to 164,000 in 2022. (Both numbers include retail; in 2012, 58% were retail, and they don't seem to break it down anymore in 2022.)

On the other hand, Facebook went from about 4,000 employees to over 70,000 in the same time period, so given how much Apple's business has grown in the last decade (when they released the iPhone 5) it seems pretty impressive that they grew only ~2x.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#193

Post by college_physics »

exodust wrote: post #40

The recent push by Apple to promote privacy controls has attracted and renewed trust in the brand. That's my theory as a partial explanation of recent success. They correctly identified privacy controls as something people actually want for real, even just knowing it's there is a nice feeling. Knowing my front door is reinforced with 7 optional locks, is much better than a fly-screen door with a privacy policy attach…

Apple is the one commercial entity that could completely disrupt surveillance capitalism and reboot the digital space to an era reminiscent of the Microsoft monopoly - but now with their huge attached and interoperable mobile user base.

What they simply need to do is make self-hosting (using Mac devices) trivially easy and support a number of new/updated protocols for decentralized online interactions (messaging, blogs, search, social etc).

Monopolies are never optimal, but given the dismal moral basis of the other "big tech" I'd take it any day...

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#195

Post by vkou »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #26
trynewideas wrote: post #15

https://techpp.com/2023/01/25/tech-layoffs-apple-2023/ > Amazon, for instance, hired about 780,000 people during the pandemic. Meta, too, had more than doubled its staff in this period, going from about 40,000 to 87,000. Even Microsoft had hired about 77,000 people just before the pandemic. > Apple, in comparison, is believed to have hired under 20,000 people during the period of the pandemic. Can't layoff people you…

Did the pandemic really increase business so much that they had to hire that many people?

They didn't have to, but the stock market expected them to.

And now that it's 2023, the stock market expects them to do layoffs.

Exec compensation is closely tied to share price.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#197

Post by Lutger »

sircastor wrote: post #63
daevout wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of a company more blatantly engaged in anti-competitive practices than Apple, but I'm glad to see all that unfairly amassed wealth benefitting even the lowest rungs of its corporate hierarchy through the unusual benefit of not being terminated at the drop of a hat. Bravo!

> I can't think of a company more blatantly engaged in anti-competitive practices than Apple In a world where Amazon, Meta, Google, Wal-Mart, Time-Warner, Comcast, etc exist, you think Apple is the most anti-competitive?

These companies you mention, at least the tech ones, are all way more open to third parties interfacing with whatever products they have or data they produce.

They are more like big city gangsters willing to do business with whomever as long as you pay them protection money, while Apple's ecosystem is like a gated community where you get shot at the door if you even so much as look like you can't afford to get in.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#199

Post by jackpeterfletch »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #26
trynewideas wrote: post #15

https://techpp.com/2023/01/25/tech-layoffs-apple-2023/ > Amazon, for instance, hired about 780,000 people during the pandemic. Meta, too, had more than doubled its staff in this period, going from about 40,000 to 87,000. Even Microsoft had hired about 77,000 people just before the pandemic. > Apple, in comparison, is believed to have hired under 20,000 people during the period of the pandemic. Can't layoff people you…

Did the pandemic really increase business so much that they had to hire that many people?

I was at the time and continue to be astonished by the lack of foresight when it came to the pandemic.

In business management, financial markets, hiring, investment, real estate patterns etc etc.

There have been some lasting effects, but it was always clearly a temporary, if not prolonged situation.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#200

Post by DoughnutHole »

valleyer wrote: post #67
microtherion wrote: post #58

I don't recall whether this was ever stated explicitly, but I always had the impression that this is one of the elements of Apple's strategy that is still driven by the tribal memory of the late 1990s turmoil. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were there at the time, and especially the former (who also had witnessed a 1980s bust) was determined to never be in this position again. So as a consequence: * Apple is hoarding c…

This is all true, but > not nearly as much so as in the pre-iOS times, admittedly deserves better than a parenthetical. Zoom out, and Apple's been on a serious hiring binge for the last decade, from 72,800 employees in 2012 to 164,000 in 2022. (Both numbers include retail; in 2012, 58% were retail, and they don't seem to break it down anymore in 2022.)

So their staffing has increased by a factor of about 2.25 while their revenue has increased by a factor of 2.5 - doesn’t sound so much like a binge as the company steadily scaling up.
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