Despite the good news regarding Apple’s 2009 Q2 earnings, from $1.45 billion in Q208 to $1.47 billion in Q209, SEC filings reveal that the company has dropped 1,600 employees from it's Apple retail locations.
The recent lay-offs may be connected to the fact that Apple already had the intention of reducing hours available to part-time workers to prepare for the inevitable global economic recession. However, cuts may have also been brought on by declining average revenue per store, which fell $1.2 million. Additionally, Apple opened 45 new stores during 2008, adding on a detrimental real estate burden.
Regardless of these cuts, the company plans to open a total of 25 new stores this year.
UPDATE: So Apple cut 1,600 full-time equivalent employees not actual people employees according to All Things Digital. Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital reports that this term is used to report man-hours and not actual employees. His inquiry to Apple about the Full-time Equivalent Employee vs. Full-time Employee yielded only a directive from Apple to view their 10-Q.
Thanks to Snookie for the heads up.
gmsquires
April 28, 2009 at 11:50am
The report Apple filed with the SEC states the number of full time man hours was reduced. That does not mean they layed off employees. They may have cut holiday employees or may have simply reduced workers from full time to part time.
Yes, MacLife should have been reading the filing and reported based on how the filing is written as full time man hours.
snookie
April 27, 2009 at 3:41pm
This story is old and it was debunked the day it came out which was sometime last week. Those numbers refer to holiday hires which were let go at the end of the holidays as usual. I would expect more timely and accurate reporting from a mac magazine than this.
