This season has been marked by an ongoing list of layoffs, especially in tech. Many prominent tech companies have reported job cuts. Yesterday, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced plans to lay off up to 10,00 workers ahead of the holiday season. But industry leader Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) just confirmed that it’s actually doing the opposite.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently addressed his company’s hiring practices, noting that — while Apple is moving slowly on hiring — it’s still bringing new staff to certain departments. Since Cook disclosed this during an interview with CBS yesterday, AAPL stock has been in the green. It’s currently up more than 1% for the day.
Let’s take a closer look at what this news means for Apple and AAPL stock investors.
What’s Happening With AAPL Stock?
Today’s bump for AAPL stock comes on the heels of some bad news. This morning, Yahoo! Finance reported that Apple is among the Big Tech players that has failed to outperform the S&P 500 yet again. Apparently, the fourth quarter is “on track to be the 11th quarter in the past 10 years” that Apple has failed in this way.
This is hardly an encouraging headline. Yet, AAPL stock has managed to climb in spite of the news. Despite a fairly turbulent month, it has even performed well over the past five days, gaining more than 8%. The important takeaway from this is that markets are reacting well to Apple’s hiring news.
CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that these are complicated times for hiring. Uncertainty is looming over the economy and many of Apple’s tech peers have responded by laying off chunks of staff. But Cook has also made it clear Apple is still focused on strategic growth:
“What we’re doing as a consequence of being in this period is we’re being very deliberate on our hiring […] That means we’re continuing to hire, but not everywhere in the company are we hiring.”
Speaking out against the trend of tech companies cutting jobs, Cook stressed the importance of investing in growth by investing in people. “We don’t believe you can save your way to prosperity,” said the executive. As Cook sees it, companies should invest their way to long-term prosperity.
These remarks come shortly after sources at the company spoke of a hiring freeze, speculating that the freeze could last through September 2023. While Cook did highlight that Apple is only hiring in certain areas, the company does not seem to have implemented this potential long-term freeze — at least for now.
What It Means
So, which areas is Apple hiring in? Some of the company’s most recent job postings are for roles in its news and content strategy divisions. But as Bloomberg reports, the company is also seeking to expand its mixed-reality headset team. This suggests that Apple may be hiring more engineers and virtual reality (VR) experts in the future.
AAPL stock investors should take comfort in the fact that Apple is still hiring at a time when most are doing the opposite. More than that, Apple is hiring strategically, clearly trying to learn from the mistakes of the tech companies that over-hired in 2021.
On the date of publication, Samuel O’Brient did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
