These were people on a team of 2000 devoted to the Car project which was recently cancelled. The ones laid off were likely those with very car-specific skills l

These were people on a team of 2000 devoted to the Car project which was recently cancelled. The ones laid off were likely those with very car-specific skills like automotive engineers and mechanics that could not easily transfer to Apple's other products. 600 out of 2000 is not too bad when ending a big project like that. the headline could easily read: Apple retains 70% of workforce from cancelled project. Those contract positions are certainly not car related.