Apple lays off black shirts

No-one's trying to make it look good.

Nick ballsed up the article, and didn't do any form of basic research.

"Two guys working half the time is equivalent to one guy not working"

Seriously? You think they might as well have just sacked people instead of just reducing hours?

Wow. I know what I'd prefer, if I were given the option.

The issue remains the same. If either someone has been laid of or not, some of them got to be making less income. Two guys working half the time is equivalent to one guy not working.

Don't try to make it look good. Apple is just the kind of business (unnecessary luxury) that will take the biggest hit from the crisis, sooner or later.

Tom,

What you've done is kind of on par with the level of research that the author of this article has done.

Of course you're allowed to get away with it, as you're not the one writing the article! ;-)

I think I prefer to read the actual filing from the company, as the company (in this case Apple) is required by law to disclose factual results.

Those factual results state FTEs, not people, so I think in this case I'll beleive the company's filing as opposed to speculation and lazy reporting ;-)

i just googled apple lay offs, most places are saying that apple has 1600 fewer full time jobs, only one artical actually said they layed off 1600 employees, and a few mentioned how they are closeing some stores... since the stores are closeing, kinda hard to keep people part time...
just my thoughts

Sensationalism is, I suppose, what one should expect from a 'red-top'. To be fair, this is not the most inaccurate of the ferret's articles, but it does seem to be a particularly unnecessary exaggeration of the details, probably as a reaction to the blatant poor reporting in his previous article on Apple's quarterly performance.

el Lizardo has hit the nail on the head.

It's man hours, not people that have been cut.

Farrell's stuffed up...

1 FTE doesn't equal one employee.

FTE is a way of measuring the hours worked by employees. It's a common term in retail, as there tends to be a mixture of full time and part time staff.

Let's assume a full time week is 40 hours.

1 FTE would describe 2 part-timers working 20 hours.

If a store reduces the hours worked by the part timers from 20 down to 13.3, then 1 FTE would be equal to 3 part timers.

If Apple reduced the hours worked by the part timers from 20 down to 10, then 1 FTE would be equal to 4 part timers.

The important part of the acronym is the 'E', which is 'Equivalent'.

If Apple had laid of about 1,600 *people*, then yes, the article would have been correct.

But instead, Apple reduced their workforce by "about 1,600 Full Time Equivalents", meaning the hours worked by the staff reduced, rather than the actual number of people.

It's something that's quite commonplace across a number of industries at the moment, given the recession. It's becoming particularly common in the motor industry, where a number of high profile car manufacturers have asked staff to consider working less hours per week, as opposed to being made redundant.

"The retail arm of the company now employs 14,000 full-time equivalent workers, down from 15,600 at the end of Apple's first fiscal quarter, according to a filing with the SEC. "

and
"Apple's retail group shed about 1,600 full-time equivalent workers during its second fiscal quarter."

Looks like Farrell got it right. What is there to correct?

Frank, I didn't mention anything about declining sales? Of course their sales are declining! It says so in their quarterly results!

But the article was wrong - it said they have sacked people from their stores, but they haven't. Nick mis-read the original article he linked to, that's all. He thought Cnet said they had sacked full time employees, but they haven't.

Just pointing out his error so he can correct the article!

Riiiiiiiiight. Because people only ever buy one desktop, one laptop and one phone in their lives. What are you using? A BT rotary dial phone, a ZX spectrum and erm... well what a pocket abacus?!

Each visit is horrific. Misinformation and brutal attitude. These kids work in a shop, damnit.

Wish they would get over themselves--this reduction/rightsizing ought to help

Sure. They haven't sacked anyone. Keep believing that. Also, keep believing that they are recession proof. Once every rich Apple fanboy has a Desktop Mac, Macbook, and iPhone, they won't need to buy any more hardware. Watch as sales continue to decline. Why with declining sales would they continue keeping full time staff?

They haven't laid anyone off, they've reduced the number of hours the part timers work. That reduces the 'Full Time Equivilant' figure reported in their accounts.

They haven't sacked anyone from their stores.

Since, there are no more people works there.