Since the summer, Apple has touted its "deliberate" decisions about investment and hiring, including on its most recent quarterly earnings call last week. But three sources with close knowledge of conversations at the company told Insider it has paused almost all hiring.
Staff across divisions, the sources said, have been told the company won't be onboarding new hires for a number of months, possibly through the end of the company's fiscal year, which is September 2023.
The hiring stall affects full-time employees inside the company, said one of the three people, with divisions such as retail still likely to add sales staffers at Apple locations in advance of the holiday gifting rush.
This person — who has direct knowledge of internal conversations at the tech behemoth — said Apple had designated "no budget" for additional headcount for company positions in the coming year. The person characterized the company as being in a hiring "freeze."
The second source, who has knowledge of multiple high-level conversations inside Apple, agreed that it's experiencing a hiring freeze. The third source — a person who was pursuing a senior-level position at the company — said they had been told by a high-ranking divisional leader that "budgets are under review." Other Apple executives reiterated similar messaging in private conversations, the third source added.
All three sources who spoke to Insider requested not to be identified discussing the tech giant's recruiting plans in order to protect their relationships with the company.
Apple has signaled for several months its plans to rein in staffing. In August, Bloomberg reported the company had laid off roughly 100 contract-based recruiters with the aim of slowing the cadence of "hiring and spending," citing "people with knowledge of the matter."
Officially, Apple has said it's taking a cautious approach to onboarding new recruits.
Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, addressed its position earlier this year during a quarterly earnings call for shareholders. "We believe in investing through the downturn. And so we'll continue to hire people and invest in areas, but we are being more deliberate in doing so in recognition of the realities of the environment," Cook said, according to a Sentieo transcript.
In a statement to Insider on Tuesday, an Apple spokesperson reiterated Cook's points. "We are continuing to hire but given the economic environment we're taking a very deliberate approach in some parts of the business," the spokesperson said. "We are very confident in Apple's future and are investing for the long term. We want to be thoughtful and make smart decisions that enable us to continue fueling innovation for the long term."
Hundreds of open roles are currently listed on Apple's careers portal, and in recent months, the company has continued to invest and hire in content units such as sports. Insider recently reported that, as of the end of August, Apple had posted several dozen open roles for content, strategy, and production related to Apple TV+'s push into live sports programming. As part of that push, Apple has also invested billions into deals with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, according to media reports.
All three sources who spoke to Insider suggested that Apple would continue to be cautious in how it characterizes hiring pauses or slowdowns, because conceding such moves could put a further dent in the company's stock price. Apple, like other tech companies, has taken a beating this year, with its stock down more than 17% year-to-date.
Big Tech giants such as Meta (owner of Facebook), DoorDash, and Uber told workers earlier this year they would halt or slow hiring for the foreseeable future.
Do you work at Apple and have insights to share about company plans for 2023? Get in touch with these reporters. Reed Alexander can be reached at ralexander@insider.com, or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758. Claire Atkinson can be reached at catkinson@insider.com, or via the encrypted service ProtonMail at claireatki@protonmail.com.
