Apple Hits Brakes On Hiring Amid Economic Uncertainty

Apple is joining other tech big-hitters that have frozen hiring across parts of their organization in response to a cooling global economy.

The tech company is limiting spending and recruitment at some of its divisions, according to Bloomberg.

Although Apple has not announced cuts externally and seems to merely be tapping the brakes, the news provoked alarm among investors who instigated a stock slide in the run-up to tech company earnings season. The company told us it was not commenting on the policy shift.

Steve Jobs' brainchild follows a string of tech glitterati who are openly treating changing market conditions with caution.

Last week it emerged that Microsoft had laid off more than a thousand staff, classifying this as a sort of summer clean-up following the closure of the latest financial year. The cull, which was less than 1 percent of the 180,000-strong global workforce, was a "structural adjustment," the company said.

Microsoft halted hiring in its Windows, Teams, and Office divisions in May.

• Microsoft slows some hiring for Windows, Teams, and Office
• Another tech giant changes course on hiring – this time it's Google
• Intel freezes hiring for PC chip team, cites 'macroeconomic uncertainty'
• Cisco dials back on hiring, cool winds blow through economy

Meanwhile, Google told staff it was set to slow some hiring for the remainder of 2022, saying it would focus on filling "engineering, technical and other critical roles" in 2023.

Hardware companies are taking similar actions. In an internal memo, Intel told employees it would not hire more staff in the PC chip division while it reevaluated its priorities. Shipments in the PC industry have declined in the first half of this year.

Cisco is likewise hiring more cautiously. "It's a time to be prudent," Richard Scott Herren, senior VP and chief financial officer, told the Nasdaq Investor Conference.

The industry is also seeing an end to the near-free money which has been sloshing around global economies for the last decade. As central banks look to raise interest rates in response to spiraling inflation, venture capitalists are making life harder for startups.

Investing in the quarter to date is down 27 percent compared with last year, while deal activity across the globe fell 23 percent, according to reports. ®