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

Apple's employee count has increased in 2024, despite reports of smaller-scale layoffs throughout the year. As of late September, the company had approximately 164,000 full-time employees worldwide. This number is up from 161,000 full-time employees reported a year ago and is equivalent to the number of employees in 2022. The figures include corporate employees and retail employees at Apple stores. Apple's employee count has been steadily increasing over the years, with 154,000 employees in 2021, 147,000 in 2020, and 137,000 in 2019. However, the company did experience a slight decrease in employee count last year. Despite the overall increase, Apple has had several incidents of layoffs this year, including the cancellation of its electric vehicle project, which resulted in over 600 layoffs. The company also laid off around 100 jobs across its Apple Books and Apple News teams and some employees after abandoning its plan to develop in-house Apple Watch displays. Additionally, some employees were laid off after being unwilling to relocate from San Diego to Austin for a Siri evaluation team. These layoffs are a result of the company's efforts to restructure and focus on different projects.