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Apple is reportedly slowing down the hiring of geniuses for certain Apple Store locations, which could be seen as an economic measure.
The Genius is a well-known role in Apple’s retail efforts, providing technical support in the store itself. Although this is an important feature of the Apple Store, it seems that Apple is not hiring geniuses as quickly as before.
Some stores have been told by Apple that Genius positions left vacant after employees left weren’t being filled, an anonymous person familiar with the matter said. Bloomberg. In some cases, Apple also removed a number of verbal job offers for the position.
So far, some stores have lost five or more support roles that are not being actively replaced. However, Apple has yet to publicly confirm a hiring freeze or any layoffs.
Employees told the report they believe it was an attempt to cut staff at stores that aren’t seeing as many customers now as they did before the pandemic.
Geniuses aren’t the only target of slow recruiting practices, as creative trainers have also seen similar reductions.
Apple has declined to comment on these claims at this time, although there may be some discussion of this on the company’s post-financial conference call.
The apparent hiring freeze comes at a time of turmoil for store staff. Amid efforts to unionize over stagnant wages and other issues, Apple has reportedly begun to fight the attempts by hiring union-busting lawyers.
