California: Tech giant Apple Inc. laid off 600 plus employees in California after it decided to ditch its car and smartwatch display projects. The count was submitted in filings with the California Employment Development Department, Bloomberg reported.
It was The Cupertino, a California-based company that filed eight separate reports to the state to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN programme. As per norms, companies must file a report to the state agency for each California address that includes employees affected by a layoff.
According to Bloomberg, at least 87 of those laid off worked at an address corresponding to a secret Apple facility, which worked on developing its next-generation screen. Others were located in addresses where the car-related project was progressing.
Apple started winding down both projects at the end of February. Both were viewed as major efforts to advance Apple’s technologies or enter sizable new areas. When the car project was cancelled due to the executives indecision about its direction and cost concerns, the display programme was stopped due to engineering, supplier and cost challenges.
Reports suggest that Apple released 371 employees from its main car-related office in Santa Clara, California, while dozens were impacted at multiple of its satellite offices. Some employees were redeployed to other teams, such as those in artificial intelligence or those who work on personal robotics.
Meanwhile, an Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the count of employees who were affected by the job cuts.
Also, the WARN notices do not reveal the full scope of job cuts since Apple had many engineers on both projects in other areas, such as Arizona.