Apple Touts U.S. Job Creation with Claims of 514,000 Jobs Tied to its Products

Friday March 2, 2012 10:59 am PST by Eric Slivka
Apple has come under increasing scrutiny for its offshoring of product manufacturing in recent years, with a number of observers believing that Apple should be trying to bring more jobs to the United States. But as noted by AllThingsD, Apple has now taken a more public position on its domestic impact by posting a new page on its site highlighting over 500,000 U.S. jobs it claims to be directly or indirectly responsible for.


Apple breaks the 514,000 jobs down into two categories: 304,000 jobs directly tied to Apple and its business partners and another 210,000 jobs that are part of the "iOS app economy". The first category includes 47,000 Apple employees and another estimated 257,000 employees at companies such as Samsung, Corning, FedEx, and UPS who are part of Apple's supply chain and other businesses. Rather than a direct count of employees at other companies, that latter figure is calculated based on "employment multipliers" published the U.S. government and applied to Apple's domestic expenditures.

Apple further addresses its in-house efforts, noting that 47,000 of its 70,000 employees are located in the United States, with 7,800 U.S. jobs having been added in 2011. Over 27,000 of its U.S. employees are part of the company's network of 246 retail stores, with Apple reporting that the majority of these employees are full-time workers. On the support side, Apple employees 7,700 AppleCare Advisors in the United States, acknowledging that it could save 50% on call center costs by outsourcing to other countries such as India but that it opts to keep the jobs in the United States in order to maintain its highly-regarded customer service standards.

On the App Economy side, Apple notes that it has paid out over $4 billion to developers since the App Store was launched less than four years ago, creating an entirely new industry that has seen 210,000 new jobs added to the U.S. economy. With 248,000 registered iOS developers in the U.S. and over 5,000 iOS developer jobs listed on Indeed.com, Apple clearly believes that the industry will continue to see strong growth.

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ArtOfWarfare
103 months ago
Am I being counted as one of the 210K people in app development?

Because I consider myself unemployed right now and am looking for a job. iOS is a fun hobby that happens to bring in about $10/day; it's no where near enough to sustain me.
Rating: 17 Votes
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nagromme
103 months ago

I wonder what those numbers would look like if Apple's manufacturing was done in the US as well. Not flaming them for being offshore. Just curious what the impact would be.


The numbers would be much closer to zero, if the resulting higher prices made their sales tank and prevented their products from getting any traction in an electronics market dominated by their low-cost Asia-sourced competitors :(
Rating: 16 Votes
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mrxak
103 months ago

Actually you're mostly wrong. Apple could absorb the hit on their profit margins and still make a profit. It'd make the items apple produce cost 33% more.

But you're probably the type that gloats that Apple has $100B in the bank. This is why.


$100B in the bank means $100B more that banks can loan out to people starting businesses, buying houses and cars, and other things, which all means more job growth and more tax income for the government. Do you think banks give out interest because of magic? Banks are profit-making enterprises, using your money to make more money, then they give you back a cut.

Don't argue about economics if you are so ignorant of the basic elements of an economic system.
Rating: 14 Votes
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newagemac
103 months ago
Apple is one of the few U.S. companies that have been actually adding stores and adding jobs since the 2008 recession hit. Most have been closing stores and furiously laying off people up until recently. Props to Apple on that.
Rating: 13 Votes
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hobo.hopkins
103 months ago

All fair points.

I think it's kind of strange that Apple needs to brag about these things, but I guess they've been pushed into a corner so they kind of had to say something.


It is strange, but not incredibly surprising given the rhetoric of some individuals in these forums and in the press. If you listened solely to them, you would think that Apple only employed slaves and benefitted this country in no way. This information helps to put much of the recent discussion involving Apple into perspective.
Rating: 13 Votes
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Andronicus
103 months ago

I wonder what those numbers would look like if Apple's manufacturing was done in the US as well. Not flaming them for being offshore. Just curious what the impact would be.

Edit: Geez...relax with the down votes people. It was a rhetorical question. Again...I'm not blaming Apple for having overseas operations. :rolleyes:


I down vote you for caring about down votes. ;)
Rating: 12 Votes
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troop231
103 months ago
How many of those ~210,000 devs actually make enough $ to live on though is the question.
Rating: 11 Votes
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tschull
103 months ago

Actually you're mostly wrong. Apple could absorb the hit on their profit margins and still make a profit. It'd make the items apple produces cost 33% more to make (if they're priced to perfection and the margins are above 33% including all costs to the business factored in, that means it'd be able to keep prices where they are, but the returns would take a beating).


Their margin is 33% when the goods are manufactured in China. What is the cost of building factories the size of small cities in the US? What is the cost of removing the factories from the proximity of their supply chains, which will still be in China? What is the cost of staffing the US factories? How much does the regulatory environment of the US increase the manufacturing cost compared to China? How would the effect of all of the above let Apple get products rapidly to market to compete with Android, et al.? Do you think Apple could sell their products at anywhere near the price they do now given these factors? I am asking that sincerely. Could they? I think it's a very difficult question to objectively analyze.
Rating: 10 Votes
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Menopause
103 months ago

I wonder what those numbers would look like if Apple's manufacturing was done in the US as well. Not flaming them for being offshore. Just curious what the impact would be.


I believe it wouldn't be feasible due to higher labor and production costs. It'd have been worse.
Rating: 9 Votes
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mrxak
103 months ago

Doesn't Apple, like many major corporations, hold it's profits and "treasure chest" offshore in a way that they paying massive amounts of US tax on it?


Money earned overseas is often kept overseas, I believe the statements made by Tim Cook indicate that. The reason is as much to keep the money locally where they're building and buying stuff, as it is to avoid repeatedly running into tax and business regulations involved with moving money around the world.

Apple earns a lot of money here, though, and I don't believe anyone has made the claim Apple is shipping their money overseas that they earn here as a tax dodge. I could be wrong of course, but somebody is paying sales taxes somewhere. People are paying payroll taxes as well. Income off of Apple's banked money is taxed in whatever jurisdiction it is held, and of course every time Apple spends some of that money to invest in research or whatever else, they're taxed on that too.

But global businesses are going to have money globally, and it doesn't make a lot of sense consolidating it all in one place if you need to keep spending it in many places. Leave the income where you bring it in, and then spend it locally when you need it.
Rating: 8 Votes

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