CHART: We analyzed Apple's revenue per employee to show how it's avoided tech bloat and delayed layoffs

• Apple has avoided layoffs longer than others by avoiding illogical bets and focusing on core operations.
• Data shows its revenue per employee trumps the rest of Silicon Valley, a sign of its efficiency.

Silicon Valley's year of efficiency has been brutal, with Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Twitter slashing more than 84,000 jobs in recent months as they seek leanness and efficiency.

One company has been able to delay job cuts longer than the rest: Apple.

The iPhone maker has talked about comparatively small-scale potential job cuts, but so far avoided the broad layoffs hitting its competitors.

That's down to a number of factors, experts told Insider.

"Apple has outperformed others and avoided the over-expansion we saw at some other tech firms during the pandemic period," John Van Reenen, economics professor at the London School of Economics, told Insider via email. "It hasn't gone big on the metaverse like Meta and its business model is less reliant on online shopping (Amazon) or remote working (Zoom)."

Apple's comparative efficiency is visible through one particular metric that is back in vogue: Revenue per employee.

Insider analyzed revenue per employee at major tech firms between 2018 and 2022. We found Apple outperformed by some margin, with revenue per employee soaring 20% in the past five years, according to analysis of public filings. It rose from $2 million in 2018 to a high of $2.4 million in 2022 – a half-decade period in which Apple's employee base also grew from 132,000 to 164,000.

Revenue per employee is a get-back-to-basics measure of efficiency and productivity, assigning a hard dollar value to individual workers. It's calculated by dividing a company's annual revenue by the number of its employees. In the aftermath of large-scale job cuts in tech, hawkish CEOs and investors say execs should be looking closely again at the metric.

"You'll hear revenue per employee again, in tech, no one was looking at these metrics at least in the private world, the VC world for at least five years," investor Keith Rabois told an event held by Evercore investment bank last month. Rabois also criticized tech firms, specifically Google and Meta, for "over-hiring" — a practice Apple avoided during tech's boom years.

Apple's revenue-per-employee numbers buck the broader downward trend for its peers.

Twitter's revenue per employee in 2022, which we calculated on an annualized basis using financial data for its first two quarters, was down an estimated 18% from 2018 to 2022, the steepest drop of the last five years. Meta has seen a 14% decrease in its revenue per employee in the same period, falling from $1.6 million to $1.3 million.

Both firms have aggressively cut jobs over the past six months.

Leo Gebbie, principal analyst at CCS Insight, said Apple's performance has come from being "focused on its core business, which remains hugely profitable," giving it "more of a cushion to ride out a period of economic and geopolitical instability."

That said, Apple is taking several belt-tightening measures to navigate the downturn, such as implementing a hiring freeze and restructuring bonus plans for employees. The company also saw revenue growth slow in 2022 as consumers in many of its key markets grappled with a cost of living crisis in the face of inflation.

The firm's continued ability to outperform may be challenged by its complex relationship with China, as well as a potentially risky venture into mixed reality with a headset expected to debut this year.

"It's likely that any such device would require heavy investment before it can realize a profit and will further the need for tight financial governance internally," Gebbie added.