Apple Employs Half a Million People in the U.S.
Apple is claiming responsibility for creating more than 500,000 jobs in the United States, according to their website Friday. The website announced 514,000 jobs ‘created or supported’ by Apple at a time the American-based corporation faces criticism for staffing factories overseas with foreign workers.
American workers make up two-thirds of Apple’s worldwide headcount, according to their site. Apple breaks down that six-digit number as 304,000 jobs described as ‘engineering to manufacturing to transportation.’ Those are then added to the remaining 210,000 jobs who are behind their applications’ mobile operating system or iOS.
Apple’s Job Figures
- 514,000 US jobs created or supported
- 304,000 current US jobs
- 210,000 iOS app economy jobs
- 47,000 US employees
- 70,000 employees worldwide
- 246 US retail stores
- 27,350 US retail employees
- 7,700 US-based AppleCare Advisers
With over 500,000 applications on the iPhone, iPad and iPod, to name a few – which recently celebrating their 25-billionth download – those iOS app economy jobs are attributed by Apple to their production.
Friday’s published numbers with their breakdown were compiled by a study with Analysis Group, an economic and financial consulting company which tallied the corporation’s direct or indirect jobs across 50 states.
Breaking down the figure of 304,000 jobs outside their iOS, Apple explains a percentage coming from their 246 US retail stores – staffing an average of over 100 workers per store, most of whom are full-time – as well as 7,700 US-based AppleCare call center advisers.
‘The vast majority of our customer support calls are handled by US employees,’ Apple said on their website.
‘Relocating our call centers overseas to places like India would reduce our costs by 50 percent or more. But we keep these jobs in the US because it helps us deliver a better customer experience.’
Among their indirect jobs tallied, the study included jobs conducted by other corporations toward theirs, companies like FedEx and UPS for their products’ shipping.
The figures follow recent criticism of Apple employing 230,000 workers in China for assembling their hardware, according to a recent Forbes report, opposed to keeping their operations in the states for American jobs.
They also come at a time when the US continues to push through a cripplingly low unemployment rate which was last reported in January by the Bureau of Labor Statistic as being 8.3 per cent of the work force.
