Apple is to chop more than 600 workers in a move likely related to the cancellation of several projects at the firm, including the company's self-driving car.

As Reg readers might expect, the world's most valuable company isn't saying much about the reasons behind the layoffs. After all, Project Titan - supposedly the name of the self-driving car project - was intended to be kept secret. However, in February it emerged that Apple had nixed development.

The company confirmed the job losses in Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing with the California Employment Development Department (EDD.)

Most of the layoffs [listed on this .xlsx doc] have come from the Kifer 4 facility at 3689 Kifer Road in Santa Clara. According to a report in Bloomberg, this location was the company's main car-related facility. Other satellite offices were also affected.

Apple has filed eight WARN notices altogether. Each one contains the address and the number of workers affected by the layoff. The documents were filed at the end of March and processed this week. A 60-day notice period is required before the mass layoff.

According to the California EDD, "Advance notice provides employees and their families time to transition and adjust to the potential loss of employment, time to seek alternative jobs and, if necessary, time to obtain skills training or retraining to successfully compete in the job market."

An estimated 2,000 employees were working on Apple's car project at the time it was canceled, and while many will have been redeployed elsewhere - possibly on Apple's generative AI projects - the notices are evidence that not all were retained.

Apple employed a total 161,000 people as of November, down from 164,000 a year earlier.

Other layoffs in the round are likely related to a decision by Apple to ditch its in-house effort to make its own smartwatch displays after cost and complexity proved fatal to the initiative.

The Register contacted Apple to confirm the cancellations and subsequent layoffs and will update should the company respond. However, it is worth remembering that the notices only apply to California and Apple's Santa Clara operations. The company had workers toiling on the projects in other geographic regions, which have also likely felt the impact. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/04/05/apple_warn_notices/