Apple is on a hiring freeze … except for its Hardware, Machine Learning and AI teams – Thinknum Media

Word in the tech community is that Apple ($NASDAQ:AAPL) employees are begnning to report hiring freezes for certain groups within the company. But other reports are that hiring is continuing at the Cupertino tech giant. In fact, we've reported on the former.

It turns out that both reports are correct. For some divisions, like Marketing and Corporate Functions, openings have been reduced. But for others, like Hardware and Machine Learning, openings and subsequent hiring appear to be as brisk as ever.

To be clear, overall, job listings at Apple have been cut back.

As recently as mid-March, Apple job listings were nearing the 6,000 mark, which would have been the company's most prolific hiring spree in history. But in late March, it became clear that no one would be going into the office any time soon, and openings quickly began disappearing from Apple's recruitment site. As of this week, openings at Apple are down to 5,240, signaling a decrease in hiring of about 13%.

But not all divisions are stalling their job listings. NeitherApple's "Hardware" or"Machine Learning and AI" groups show a decline in job listings of note.

Hardware openings are flat at worst. Today's 1,570 openings isn't significantly different than a high of 1,600 in March.

Apple's "Machine Learning and AI" group remains as healthy as ever when it comes to new listings being posted to the company's careers sites. As of this week, the team has 334 openings. Last month, that number was 300, an 11% increase in hiring activity.

However, other groups at Apple have seen significant decreases in job listings, including "Software and Services", "Marketing", and "Corporate Functions".

Apple's "Software and Services" team saw a siginificant drop in openings, particularly on April 10, when around 110 openings were cut from the company's recruiting website overnight. Since mid-March, openings on the team have fallen by about 12%.

Between April 14 and April 23, the number of listings for Apple's "Marketing" team dropped by 84. In late March, Apple was seeking 311 people for its Marketing team. Since then, openings have fallen by 36% for the team.

"Corporate Functions" jobs at Apple, which include everything from HR to Finance and Legal, have also seen a steep decline in recent weeks. In late March, Apple listed more than 300 openings for the team. As of this week, it has just around 200 openings, a roughly 1/3 hiring freeze.

So is Apple in the middle of a hiring freeze? Some parts of the company appear frozen. Others appear as hot as ever. Given the in-person nature of Marketing and Corporate Functions jobs, it's not surprising that the company would tap the breaks on interviewing for such positions. On the other hand, engineers working on hardware and machine learning can be remote interviewed and onboarded with equipment delivery.

So, yes, and yes. Apple is, and is not, in the middle of a hiring freeze.

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - andcreates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.

More:
Apple is on a hiring freeze ... except for its Hardware, Machine Learning and AI teams - Thinknum Media