Apple Has 500 Employees in Korea, Supports 325,000 Jobs in Country - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Has 500 Employees in Korea, Supports 325,000 Jobs in Country

Apple today revealed job creation figures in South Korea for the first time since entering the country two decades ago, as noted by The Korea Herald.

apple jobs south korea
In a new page on its website, Apple says it has created and supports 325,000 jobs in South Korea, including 500 direct employees, 125,000 jobs through partners in the country like component manufacturers and product distributors, and 200,000 jobs through the App Store ecosystem.

Apple's direct employees in the country include designers, customer service representatives, marketing specialists, hardware and software engineers, and retail staff at its Garosugil store in Seoul.

Apple adds that Korean developers have earned 4.7 trillion won in worldwide revenue through the ‌App Store‌ since 2008.

Last week, Apple claimed that it now supports 2.4 million jobs in the United States.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Friday July 17, 2026 10:39 am PDT by
It is now mid-July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now just two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, ...
iCloud General Feature Redux

Apple Raises iCloud+ Prices in 8 Countries

Friday July 17, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple has increased the price of iCloud+ in Nigeria, Türkiye, Vietnam, Japan, Egypt, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to an updated version of its iCloud support document. Price increases range from 11 percent to 55 percent depending on the plan and the country. Nigeria saw the biggest hike, and a 50GB plan is now ₦1,300, up from ₦900. Türkiye saw the next largest...
iPhone 17 17 Pro and Air Feature

Apple Raises iPhone Prices in Japan

Friday July 17, 2026 12:45 pm PDT by
After raising prices on all Macs and iPads worldwide last month, Apple has now increased the price of iPhone models in Japan. As spotted by the Spanish blog iPhoneros, the iPhone 16, iPhone 17e, iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max all received price increases on Apple's online store in Japan today. Prices increased by up to 11%. Model Previous...

Top Rated Comments

90 months ago
I like how Apple takes credit for creating those Samsung jobs. The marketing spin is real
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
90 months ago
Yay! Let's share more Apple PR crap.

Let's do Singapore next!
How about how many are in Japan?!
Then let's do France!
How about UK?
...
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scottsoapbox Avatar
90 months ago
Software engineers are going to make apps regardless of platform. Apple didn't create those jobs anymore than Microsoft.

If people shifted away from iOS to Android or Linux or something not yet created, those jobs will still exist making apps for another OS.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
90 months ago
I don’t understand the negativity here. Apple can, and should, be proud about what they have accomplished worldwide. That to me personally is far better than any other company that I know about.

Few other examples. For the UK and the rest of Europe the link is:

https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/

For Japan the link is:

https://www.apple.com/jp/job-creation/ ('https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/')

Just look at those numbers. Astonishing!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
90 months ago
I don’t understand the negativity here. Apple can, and should, be proud about what they have accomplished worldwide. That to me personally is far better than any other company that I know about.

Few other examples. For the UK and the rest of Europe the link is:

https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/

For Japan the link is:

https://www.apple.com/jp/job-creation/ ('https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/')

Just look at those numbers. Astonishing!
You forget the narrative here. Anything Apple is bad, period, no matter what it is. Get in the program man. /s
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JRobinsonJr Avatar
90 months ago
I don’t understand the negativity here. Apple can, and should, be proud about what they have accomplished worldwide. That to me personally is far better than any other company that I know about.

Few other examples. For the UK and the rest of Europe the link is:

https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/

For Japan the link is:

https://www.apple.com/jp/job-creation/ ('https://www.apple.com/uk/job-creation/')

Just look at those numbers. Astonishing!
Apple *should* be proud of what they've accomplished. So should every other company that creates jobs. The issue I have is the ratio of 'real jobs' (employees) to 'net jobs'.. It's like me saying that because I like to travel there are 500 people that would have been out of work this year if I hadn't taken a vacation. It might be true that there were 500 people directly and indirectly providing services, but it is more than a bit disingenuous to take create.

One can successfully argue that Apple has created a massive supply chain making and assembling components for the iDevices line. That would be fair. It's equally fair to say that Samsung has invested in and built a large manufacturing organization building and assembling parts for Apple.

Do both organizations get some credit? I think so.

Do both companies get to published 'effective job' numbers? IMO... no.

If they did, each employee would be counted twice. Then what about Samsung's smartphone division? Do they get to count those jobs too? How many manufacturers, suppliers, shippers, etc. get to claim those jobs? Who get's to decide that?

What happens when we start aggregating all of the 'net jobs" and find that in spite of only 7.5 billion people on the planet, there are 12 billion people employed? Given that the aggregation is meaningless, what meaning should be applied to the individual line items?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)