Is Apple upsizing or downsizing?

The Web (and the Silicon Valley rumor mill) are abuzz about the current human resources situation at Apple. Is the Cupertino computer and electronics giant hiring or laying off?

There are almost as many different rumors as there are Apple-watchers. Depending upon which wag you listen to, Apple could be hiring additional staff or laying groups of employees off. Here are some of the latest employment rumors relative to Apple:

• There are major layoffs underway at all Apple facilities.
• The recent announcement of new iMacs and Minis was timed to distract Apple watchers away for the layoffs being made.
• All sales teams at Apple have been scheduled for what are termed “mandatory meetings” today, which is the sort of meeting at which employees are handed their walking papers.
• Most layoffs will involve Apple person-to-person sales teams because Steve Jobs would rather handle sales on line.
• Apple currently has posted over 300 new job openings so far in 2009.
• Apple continues to post new job openings almost every day.
• More than one group of fifty employees has been laid off in sales, hardware, and/or software.
• Layoffs occurred in Cupertino and Austin, or maybe not.
• Apple has confirmed that some layoffs have taken place.
• Apple has denied that any major layoffs are taking place.

Some of these rumors were very precise, such as “Layoffs in the sales group did happen, according to several sources who were brought into conference rooms in Austin and Cupertino last Tuesday and given white manila envelopes informing them that they had been laid off, amid plainclothes security officers,” as printed in the International Business Times. Others barely qualify as rumors at all, such as knowing someone who knew someone who had been laid off.

It would be odd if Apple were to weather the current economic storm without a few layoffs. When sales are down, and they almost certainly are, cutting costs becomes the order of the day. There is only so much bleeding that any company can take. All that is known for sure is that Apple has not officially reported any job cuts, but then they do not have to report layoffs under 500 employees. Logic dictates that Apple may be cutting out some deadwood, but they are not clear-cutting any forests.

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