Apple Lays Off Exactly 619 Workers

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 5, 6:55AM EDT

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Apple Lays Off Exactly 619 Workers — © hxyume / iStock via Getty Images

In a sign that the press will write about anything that involves Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), the fact that it laid off 619 workers received unusual attention. In California, companies must file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification when they have a “plant closing or mass layoff.” The rule also says that employees must receive 60 days notice.

There was speculation that the downsizing, tiny for a company Apple’s size, was tied to the company’s decision not to build a car. CNBC reported, “The filing comes weeks after Apple canceled a long-running project to build an electric, self-driving car in a team called the Special Projects Group.” Were the two events related? There is no evidence that they are.

The media continues to be hungry for negative news about Apple. Its failure to continue working on an electric vehicle garnered a huge amount of press coverage. So did news that Apple’s China sales fell by double-digit percentages in the early weeks of this year. (Here Is How Much Money Apple Makes Every Minute.)

Much of the press related to Apple has focused on its need for an obvious path to becoming a major force in artificial intelligence. A recent rumor had Apple joining Alphabet to help both tech giants not appear to be failures because they needed to match the AI success of Nvidia or Microsoft.

Apple’s tiny layoffs may only be based on creating efficiency in a modest part of its businesses. And middle management may have made the decision. In other words, in the scheme of things, little has happened, except to those who were let go.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.