Apple makes first major layoffs in a long time and fires more than 600 employees

Apple has laid off 614 employees in Santa Clara. This is the first massive layoff in the company in a long time, reports San Francisco Chronicle.

The layoffs affected eight offices in Santa Clara, with most of the laid-off employees being people who worked on Apple’s canceled electric car project. The layoffs were announced on March 28 and will take effect on May 27.

Although it has not been officially reported which project the employees were involved in, the layoffs affected “machine shop” managers, hardware engineers, and product design engineers.

Previously, Apple was able to avoid large layoffs by hiring new employees more slowly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In late March, Apple abandoned the development of its own electric car. This project was launched in 2014, but after years of effort, the company decided to cancel it.

Now Apple is considering home robotics as its next ambitious project.