Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., smiles as he greets customers during the opening of the new Apple BKC store in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. 

Indranil Aditya | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple doesn’t have plans for big layoffs, CEO Tim Cook told CNBC while discussing the company’s earnings on Thursday, in a stark contrast from Big Tech peers like Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, which have cut thousands of employees this year.

“I view that as a last resort and, so, mass layoffs is not something that we’re talking about at this moment,” Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach.

Cook didn’t rule out the possibility of job cuts but said that Apple isn’t planning any and that such a move would only be a “last resort.”

Apple is cutting costs, however, and has slowed its rate of hiring, the CEO said.

“We’re continuing to be extremely prudent on hiring. We’re continuing to hire, just at a lower clip level than we were before,” Cook said. “And we’re doing all the right things of challenging the things that we spend, and we’re just finding a few more ways to save on it.”

Apple slowed hired during the pandemic more so than many of its rivals. It’s one reason why it might be better positioned not to lay off employees now in response to macroeconomic conditions.

But the company also remains extremely profitable. During its March quarter earnings report on Thursday, it reported $24 billion in net income on $95 billion in total revenue.

Correction: Apple reported $95 billion in total revenue after the bell on Thursday. An earlier version misstated the figure.