Apple's Employee Count Grew This Year Despite Smaller-Scale Layoffs

Apple's employee count grew in 2024, despite reports that the company had at least four incidents of smaller-scale layoffs this year.

imac video apple feature
As of late September, Apple had approximately 164,000 full-time employees worldwide, the company disclosed in a filing last week. That's up from the 161,000 full-time employees that Apple reported a year ago. These figures include corporate employees, such as software engineers, and retail employees at its stores.

Apple now has as many employees as it did in 2022, following a slight decrease last year.

Apple's full-time employee counts by year, per the company's filings:

  • 2024: 164,000
  • 2023: 161,000
  • 2022: 164,000
  • 2021: 154,000
  • 2020: 147,000
  • 2019: 137,000
  • 2018: 132,000

Apple laid off more than 600 employees this year after canceling its long-running electric vehicle project, according to a notice the company filed in California. The company also relocated a Siri evaluation team from San Diego, California to Austin, Texas, and some on the 120-person team who were not willing to make the long-distance move were laid off.

Apple also cut around 100 jobs across its Apple Books and Apple News teams this year, and laid off some employees after abandoning its plan to develop in-house Apple Watch displays with micro-LED technology, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

While some other tech companies like Google and Microsoft have laid off tens of thousands of employees over the past two years, Apple has managed to avoid larger-scale layoffs in that time. With its employee count once again at an all-time high, and its quarterly revenues in record territory again, Apple is heading into 2025 on a good note.

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 17 air dummy unbox therapy

iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video

Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
ipad air windows 11 arm

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules

Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect. As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
iphone 17 pro majin bu sky blue

iPhone 17 Pro Allegedly Coming in Sky Blue Color Used for MacBook Air

Tuesday April 22, 2025 4:08 am PDT by
Apple will unveil the iPhone 17 Pro in a new Sky Blue color, the same color that debuted on the latest M4 MacBook Air models Apple released in March. That's according to the leaker Majin Bu. Concept mockup from Majin Bu Writing on his website, Bu claims that "sources close to the supply chain confirm that several iPhone 17 Pro prototypes have been made in various colors, with Sky Blue...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...

Top Rated Comments

Stromos Avatar
24 weeks ago
Layoff QA engineers hire more emoji designers! /s
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CrysisDeu Avatar
24 weeks ago

I wonder too. I've never worked in tech, or even adjacent to tech.

I have a cousin that is a developer at the spaceship, and he strictly works internal software used at the retail locations. I guess there are all types of positions that don't work on consumer-facing things.
I work in tech, things don’t go as fast as you would expect. But Apple moves sooo slow..

Huawei have 207,000 full time employees, Samsung electronics have 267,800, Xiaomi 32,500 for comparison.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
24 weeks ago

You think they'd have enough people to figure out how to get the Magic Mouse to charge without flipping it over. ?
Those people were moved to work on the Mac mini's power button. In the end they were like "F it. Let's be consistent and put it on the bottom like the charging port of the Magic Mouse."
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Schmitti81 Avatar
24 weeks ago
With 160000 people:
If they stay in average 4 years, Apple needs to higher about 40000 per year in average or about 150 per work day.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacTwick Avatar
24 weeks ago
I want to mention that Apple offered other positions to the majority of the people on the car project. And to those who didn't get offered another position, they were given 90 days to apply internally for another role at Apple.

This is much different than a traditional layoff we see happening daily in tech, and is very misleading.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coffeemilktea Avatar
24 weeks ago
You think they'd have enough people to figure out how to get the Magic Mouse to charge without flipping it over. ?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)