The tech giant is cutting more than half its employees in California as part of the decisions to end its electric car and in-house smartwatch display projects, according to filings with the California Employment Development Department. The Cupertino, California-based company filed eight separate reports to the state to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, program, which requires companies to give a 60-day notice of mass layoffs. The filings suggest that Apple ended the car project and its display program in February due to executive indecision about their direction as well as concerns over costs.
Of the impacted workers, 371 were laid off at the main car-related office in Santa Clara, and dozens more at multiple satellite locations. Former car team members were reportedly relocated to teams working on artificial intelligence or personal robotics initiatives.
While the jobs lost are the result of two high-profile projects, Apple is likely to cut employees at other facilities worldwide as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline operations and refocus resources on its future success. The company is expected to shed about 6,000 jobs globally by the summer, more than the 5,600 cuts it made in its first quarter.
The company had been battling to make the electric car and in-house displays commercially viable, but those efforts ultimately proved unfeasible. The car project was partly abandoned because of internal uncertainty about the initiative’s strategic direction and escalating cost concerns. At the same time, the smartwatch display program was dropped after encountering engineering, supplier, and cost challenges.
Bloomberg reported earlier this year that Apple told the 2,000 employees tasked with developing its self-driving car in late February that the project would be winding down and that some of them would be reassigned to other areas under John Giannandrea. However, that move may have left the company with a workforce that needed to be more significant for its needs.
The new job cuts were announced on Tuesday and will take effect in a month. According to the filings, they affect workers at a Siri data operations office, a building connected to the car project, and a building associated with the company’s microLED display efforts. In addition, the layoffs impacted several contractors and third-party suppliers that had worked with those departments. The Cupertino-based company does not typically comment on the timing or number of layoffs it makes. The filings also do not provide any details on the types of jobs being eliminated. It’s not clear whether the layoffs will be permanent or if workers will be hired back in the future.
