Apple vs Microsoft: which job is safer?
Layoff risk for Engineering roles in India, scored this morning from confirmed layoffs, WARN filings, earnings, hiring and news signals.
Apple
AAPL • Consumer Hardware
- 7-day move
- +16
- Employee reports
- 1 in 30d
- Safer than
- 13% of 78
- Layoffs (1 yr)
- 1 · 200 roles
Most recent confirmed cut: Aug 21, 2026, 200 roles.
Full Apple reportMicrosoft
MSFT • Enterprise Software
- 7-day move
- +6
- Employee reports
- 6 in 30d
- Safer than
- 4% of 78
- Layoffs (1 yr)
- 2 · 4,842 roles
Most recent confirmed cut: Jul 6, 2026, 4,800 roles.
Full Microsoft reportApple vs Microsoft, signal by signal
| Signal | Apple | Microsoft |
|---|---|---|
| Layoff risk score | 47 / 100 | 57 / 100 |
| Risk band | MODERATE | HIGH |
| 7-day move | +16 | +6 |
| 30-day move | +17 | -11 |
| Confirmed layoffs (1 yr) | 1 | 2 |
| Disclosed roles cut (1 yr) | 200 | 4,842 |
| WARN notices (7 d) | 3 | 5 |
| Layoff headlines (7 d) | 18 | 0 |
| Employee sentiment | nervous | panic |
| Employee-reported layoffs (30 d) | 1 | 6 |
| Employee mood votes (30 d) | 5 · 30% worried | 8 · 63% worried |
Green marks the safer side of each row. Lower is better on every risk signal except open roles and revenue growth, where more is the healthier reading.
90-day risk trend, side by side
Should you switch from Apple to Microsoft?
Apple scores 47/100 (moderate risk) against Microsoft's 57/100 (high) for Engineering roles in India — a 10-point gap. What sits behind the gap: Microsoft has confirmed 4,842 roles across 2 announcements in the past year against 200 roles across 1 announcement at Apple, and Microsoft has 6 employee-reported layoffs in the last 30 days against 1 at Apple. Cutting the other way, Microsoft's risk fell 11 points over the last 30 days while Apple's rose 17 points.
Direction matters as much as level. Over the last 30 days Apple's risk score rose 17 points and Microsoft's fell 11 points. That is narrowing the gap, so the current verdict is the weaker of the two readings — check it again before you sign anything.
On confirmed events, Apple has 1 confirmed layoff totalling 200 disclosed roles on Aug 21. Microsoft has 2 confirmed layoffs totalling 4,842 disclosed roles, the latest on Jul 6. Confirmed cuts are the heaviest input to the score and they decay on a half-life rather than expiring, so a large recent round keeps weighing on a company for months while an old one fades gradually.
In the last seven days: Apple added 16 points: 200 roles confirmed cut on Aug 21 and 3 WARN notices filed with state labour departments this week. Microsoft added 6 points: a still-weighted cut of 4,800 roles (2% of staff) on Jul 6; and 5 WARN notices filed with state labour departments this week.
Employee sentiment, blended from anonymous reports and the data signals, reads nervous at Apple and panic at Microsoft, though on only 7 employee reports between them in the last 30 days. Sentiment moves earlier than confirmed events but is far noisier, so treat it as a leading indicator rather than a score.
One caveat worth stating plainly: this compares employer-level risk, not your risk. Any engineering role on a revenue-critical team at the riskier company can be safer than a cost-centre role at the safer one. Read the score as the weather, not the forecast for your specific seat.