One of the reasons why Apple is under less pressure than tech peers to slash jobs during the current economic slowdown is that hired more efficiently in the first place.
Saksha Menezes for Bloomberg News:
During the industry’s pandemic-fueled hiring binge, Apple added fewer employees than other big tech firms. On top of that, the company generated far more revenue per new hire than its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Apple Hired More Cautiously During the Pandemic
Employees added during past three years compared with pre-COVID level
However, headcount can’t fully explain Apple’s edge over competitors. The company also generates some of the highest sales per square foot — an indication that its efficiency goes beyond hiring policies.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s customer quality that separates Apple from its so-called rivals.
Analysts who ignore, discount, or who are unaware of Apple’s superior customer demographics (and very healthy margins) routinely make the mistake of assuming Apple will fare similarly in an inflationary / recessionary environment than outfits who cater to customers who are more heavily impacted by inflation (commodity Windows PC and Android phone peddlers, for two examples).
It’s the non-Apple tech companies that are most at risk during a consumer spending slowdown since their consumers have less, and/or are less willing, to spend. Apple will be just fine, even in a recession. – MacDailyNews, October 4, 2022
Company gross margin was 43%, up 70 basis points from last quarter due to leverage and favorable mix, partially offset by foreign exchange. Products gross margin was 37%, up 240 basis points sequentially. Services gross margin was 70.8%, up 30 basis points sequentially. Apple expects March quarter (Q223) gross margin to be between 43.5% and 44.5%.
Exceedingly strong margins like this give Apple room to maneuver through any recession that may arrive due to continued inflation and interest rate hikes to combat them. This margin headroom that Apple’s rivals simply do not have bodes well for Apple taking even more market share from the Mac, iPad, and iPhone knockoff peddlers of the world. — MacDailyNews, February 3, 2023
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
Bragging about the margins that Apple has on their products does nothing but reinforce the perception that Apple is expensive and/or overcharging for those products!
Tesla brags about their margins, too. Would you make the same complaint about them?
I totally understand Amazon’s big hiring bump — since you need a lot of extra bodies in the warehouse and shipping areas to handle the big jump in online shopping during the pandemic… but Salesforce? Microsoft?
Also, a lot of the companies announcing big layoffs are actually doing fine, financially. Their executives are trying to boost their share prices, which is how a lot of those very same executives generate their obscene salaries and bonuses. Disney, for example, announced a $1.5 billion quarterly profit at the same time they announced firing 7,000 employees.
Biggest story in business is buried by the commie/union loving press. Elon fired 75% of twitter and it’s been more productive and runs better.
Apple could fire 7/8th of its woke crap employees and be a far more productive company.