Apple has laid off roughly a 100 recruiters who worked on contract basis in the last week as the tech giant seeks to reduce spending, according to a Bloomberg report. 

The laid off recruiters were responsible for hiring new talent to the company. They were told that the reason they had been laid off was because Apple’s business needs had changed. The layoffs are the latest in an industry-wide shift away from growth and hiring as tech companies brace for an incoming recession.

Unlike other companies which have committed to mass layoffs, the Cupertino-based company has chosen to instead slow down on hiring after years of continuous hiring, so the contract-based recruiters being let go is an unusual step. In the company’s second quarter earnings call two weeks ago, CEO Tim Cook said that Apple believed in “investing through the downturn” and the company would continue to hire people but they would be more “deliberate” in their actions going forward. 

Also Read: Hootsuite latest to be hit by layoffs amid Silicon Valley’s recession fears

An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg that not all of its contractors had been laid off and that it was retaining recruiters who are full-time employers. The contractual workers have been laid off across the world, and not just the United States, with cuts affecting recruiters based as far as Singapore. 

The terminated employees had their badges disabled and were told to email a list of their belongings to Apple if they wanted the items returned to them. Those who have been let go have been offered two weeks of pay and medical benefits.

It isn’t like the California-based company hasn’t axed workers before. In 2019, it laid off a large group of contract workers in Cork, Dublin. The tech company is one of the many who use contractors for services other than software engineering. The cuts in the past have affected those who work in technical support and customer service.

Most tech companies have been clamping down on their expenses as consumer behaviour has changed in the face of the receding COVID-19 pandemic. Companies like Meta, Amazon, Shopify and Google are either implementing hiring freezes or terminating employment with dozens of workers.