Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, January 19 (Xinhua) as two giants in the technology industry, Microsoft and Amazon are competing to lay off tens of thousands of people. But there is one tech giant that has been left alone: Apple.

▲ Apple has not yet announced layoffs. Interestingly, Microsoft was still denying the rumors of layoffs yesterday and announced 10, 000 layoffs in the evening. Similarly, Amazon launched previously announced layoffs on Wednesday, which will eventually affect 18000 people. In the past year, major technology companies in the United States have laid off more than 60,000 people, including giants such as Google and Facebook.

Although the situation varies slightly from company to company, most companies that are laying off staff cite macroeconomic conditions and possible future recessions as reasons for their spending cuts. However, they also underestimated one factor: the hiring spree of technology companies over the past two years.

The epidemic fuelled the recruitment spree in 2020, and widespread COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control measures made Internet applications more important to people, which provided impetus for the business of many technology companies. As revenues and profits continue to grow in 2021, they continue to add a large number of employees in the hope that the success they see will become a new starting point. But this is not the case. Economic growth is slowing and companies now have to readjust.

When it comes to hiring, Amazon can be said to crush other technology companies. The e-commerce giant employs 1.6 million people, about ten times the size of Alphabet, the parent company of Apple or Google. In this way, it is not surprising that Amazon has laid off 18000 people, making it the top technology company.

▲ Amazon employs ten times as many people as Apple. Through SEC filings, you can see how fast the workforce of these big technology companies grew during the epidemic.

Microsoft: an increase of 58000 in two years according to the latest official data available, Microsoft had 221000 full-time employees at the end of June 2022, an increase of 40,000 employees, or 22%, over the same period in 2021. The year before, Microsoft added 18000 employees, an increase of 11%.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wade Bush Securities, said in a report on Microsoft layoffs that the technology industry had to spend money to keep up with growing demand during the epidemic. "Microsoft needs to hire as aggressively as other technology companies and spend as much money as rock stars in the 1980s to keep up with eye-popping demand." He said.

Amazon: adding 810,000 in two years is more complicated than Microsoft because it employs a large number of hourly workers in its warehouses and corporate office workers that are common to most technology companies. Still, Amazon's workforce is growing greedily in 2021, adding 310000 jobs. This follows an even larger expansion in 2020, with 500000 employees, an increase of more than 38 per cent. Overall, Amazon had 1.6 million employees at the end of December 2021, of which about 300000 worked in the company's offices.

▲ Amazon's 2020 employee growth of more than 38 per cent, Amazon retail director Doug Harrington (Doug Harrington) said in a memo to employees on Wednesday that COVID-19 's expansion during the epidemic was one of the reasons for layoffs. " During the outbreak, our top priority is to scale up to meet the needs of our customers and to ensure the safety of our employees. I am very proud of the team's work during this period, "Harrington said." while other companies may be hesitant in the short-term economy, in this unprecedented period, our priority is to invest in customers and employees. "

Facebook: 26000 more SEC files in two years show that Facebook parent company Meta has added thousands of employees every year since it went public in 2012. In 2020, Meta added more than 13000 employees, an increase of 30%, the largest number of hires in the company's history. In 2021, the company added another 13000 employees. In terms of the total number of employees, it was the fastest growing year in Facebook's brief history.

Google: Alphabet, Google's parent company, has added more than 37,000 jobs in two years than other large-cap companies, but in recent weeks the company has cut 240 jobs in its health sciences division Verily and 40 in its robotics division Intrinsic.

Although Alphabet's recent layoffs are much smaller than at some other companies, its workforce has also grown hugely. In 2021, Alphabet added more than 21000 employees, an increase of 15%, to a total of 156500. In 2020, the company added more than 16000 employees, an increase of nearly 14%. However, Alphabet experienced this growth long before the outbreak. Alphabet has added at least 10 per cent of its employees each year since 2013 and 20 per cent of new employees in 2018 and 2019.

Apple is an exception, but Apple is a major exception. In the past two years, the company has not significantly accelerated the pace of hiring, nor has it announced any layoffs.

During the outbreak, Apple's employee growth rate was much slower. In fact, Apple's hiring over the past few years has followed the same general trend since 2016. As of September 2022, Apple had 164000 employees, including corporate employees and retail employees in stores, an increase of only 6.5% over the same period in 2021, equivalent to an actual increase of 10,000 people. Apple also hired cautiously in 2020, adding less than 7000 employees in the year to September 2021.

▲ Apple's headcount growth in 2020 was only 7.3%. Although there are no layoffs, Apple has also taken steps to limit spending. Apple has suspended hiring of many jobs outside its R & D department in an effort to cut its budget. Apple previously said in a statement that it would continue to hire, "but in view of the current economic environment, we have taken a very cautious approach in some areas of our business. We want to be thoughtful and make informed decisions so that we can promote innovation in the long term."

When the business is not going well, the life of senior executives is also difficult. Apple CEO Tim Cook (Tim Cook) has offered to cut his salary by 40%. The annual salary will be reduced by about $50 million in 2023. Apple said in the filing that the board "took into account shareholder feedback and Cook's advice" in determining executive compensation.

In addition, apple filings show that the proportion of stock units awarded to cook linked to apple's performance will increase from 50% to 75% in 2023, as well as in the coming years.

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