San Francisco, Apr 4 (IANS): Apple is reportedly laying off a small percentage of people from one of its corporate teams amid the deepening global meltdown.

According to a report in Insider, Apple has told some corporate retail employees to reapply for their jobs or they will be laid off.

The reports said that Apple is slashing jobs in the division that "handles building and upkeep for its retail stores".

Affected employees have reportedly been told that they have until the end of the week to apply for other positions at the company.

"Apple is offering up to four months of severance pay for those that aren't able to stay," the reports mentioned.

Internally, the iPhone maker is "pitching it as a way to improve its operations rather than as a cost-cutting measure".

Apple is the only Big Tech company which has not done any massive layoffs so far amid the global economic downturn.

The company's CEO had told The Wall Street Journal that layoffs were "a last resort."

"We estimated that we would have grown on the iPhone absent the supply constraints. The macroeconomic situation is more difficult to estimate, but it's apparent from looking at the numbers that wind was in our face for the quarter," he was quoted as saying in the report.

Cook said the company is managing costs very tightly and is curtailing hiring in certain areas, while continuing to hire in others.

"I view layoffs as a last resort kind of thing," he added.

The company has slowed down hirings for some departments, delaying bonuses, reducing travel budgets, pushing back projects, and more such measures to cut costs.