There are fewer sales and support folks at Apple these days, according to a C/NET article, which states that Apple cut 375 of those positions in the quarter ending in December of 2001. The C/NET article, by Ian Fired, titled Apple pares a small number of jobs, says:
The cuts, which are the latest in a series of small-scale moves by the Mac maker, came in its sales and support operations.
A company representative would not go into specifics about the latest cuts or say how many jobs were affected.
“Apple remains one of the few large companies in the Valley who hasn’t had major layoffs in these challenging times,” the Apple representative said.
In a February filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple said it cut 375 jobs in the quarter ending Dec. 31 and planned to cut 50 more jobs. Apple took a $24 million restructuring charge in its January earnings report.
Check out the C/Net article for more detail.
The Mac Observer Spin:
While we’re sure it wasn’t a pleasant experience for those who lost thier jobs, in terms of Apple itself this news is not so bad. As the article pointed out, Apple has thus far avoided massive layoffs in order to remain profitable, unlike all of its competitors, which have each layed off thousands of employees. We only hope that the loss of these particular jobs won’t mean lower service and support, two areas in which Apple could always do better.