Report: Apple Cuts Management Jobs and Shelves Proposal to Eliminate 5,000 Support Roles
Key Facts
Apple is considering reducing management layers in parts of the company so product engineers can work directly with senior decision-makers, according to a report by The Apple Post citing Bloomberg. Apple has not publicly commented on the report, so the move does not represent an announced company policy. Separately, reports said a proposal to cut about 5,000 jobs in AppleCare support and place some customer-service tasks under AI management had been shelved. The reports say the company is not pursuing the cuts at present. These developments focus attention on CEO John Ternus’s approach to managing engineering teams, while details of the reorganization remain officially unconfirmed.
Reports indicate that ongoing changes in hardware engineering include cuts to engineering program management roles, affecting several managers and about half a dozen executives. The move, according to the account attributed to Bloomberg, is consistent with an effort to reduce management barriers between engineers and senior leadership. The report does not establish that the company announced the elimination of these jobs or adopted a sweeping organizational change. Details on the number of affected jobs beyond the managers mentioned were also not included in the available information. The measures remain part of reports about internal changes that Apple has not confirmed.
As for the AppleCare proposal, its details date to a report published on 29 September 2026, which covered the possibility of eliminating about 5,000 support jobs and using AI for some tasks performed by customer-service advisers. But the report itself said the plan had been shelved, making the figure one tied to a proposal that was considered rather than an ongoing job reduction. Apple has not publicly confirmed either the proposal or its suspension. This leaves the status of support jobs different from the changes that reports said had begun in engineering program management. The available information gives no date for resuming the AppleCare plan or final decision on it.
Ternus has been Apple’s CEO since 1 September 2026, succeeding Tim Cook, who became executive chairman, according to the company’s announcement. Ternus joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, then became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team as senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021. This career path gives the reported changes a direct connection to his engineering leadership experience, but does not confirm that he approved or announced them. Apple has not publicly provided organizational details linking specific decisions to its new CEO.
More broadly, the report cited Bloomberg as saying Ternus is considering easing the strict seasonal product-launch calendar and spreading announcements over longer periods during the year, while encouraging the company to test new products. This comes alongside reports of cuts to management layers, as part of broader changes under consideration at Apple. In September, the company announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, along with a new range of Apple Watches and AirPods 5. The available information does not say whether a change to the launch schedule has been approved or when it might begin. These steps, like the reorganization, remain within the scope of reports attributed to Bloomberg.
Apple’s results for the third fiscal quarter of 2026 provide financial context for the period in which the company is considering these changes. Apple said its gross margin was 50.1%, including a positive impact of about 2 percentage points from tariff refunds. Diluted earnings per share were $2.02, up 29% year over year, and included a positive impact of $0.11 per share from those refunds. These figures reflect the quarter’s results, and in its published information the company does not link them to the restructuring or the AppleCare jobs proposal. In the stock market, Apple shares closed at $347.73 on 23 October 2026, according to EL7 data.