

Apple: We're responsible for 514,000 American jobs - TechBlock1
http://www.thetechblock.com/articles/2012/apple-responsible-for-514000-american-jobs/

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doctorwho
This is pathetic. Apple attempts to justify huge markups on cheap foreign
labour by boasting about how many jobs it has created at home. Pure bullshit.
It _has_ tocreate those jobs to sustain its business. It does not _have_ to
use foreign labour, but it does because it's cheaper. If they could outource
their entire operation and see X times profi, you can be absolutely sure they
would. In a heartbeat.

~~~
benihana
I don't understand why people get mad at Apple. Get mad at American consumers
for demanding, no worse, feeling entitled to paying extremely low prices for
very high tech things. Apple could use American manufacturing and either
produce crap at low profits, or extremely expensive gadgets no one could
afford. Instead, they produce millions of devices people want and buy, then
have to explain themselves for not employed good old fashioned American labor
in their factories.

They're creating high tech, high-skilled jobs (product design, software
development, hardware diagnosis and repair) at home, and outsourcing the low-
tech low-skilled jobs to foreigners.

~~~
doctorwho
I'm happy they're doing well. They have made smart business decisions and some
great products. I just wish they'd stop trying to spin everything. They made
the decision to ship jobs overseas and that was good for their bottom line,
but instead of talking about that, they talk about how many US jobs they've
created. It's not an honest conversation.

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SeoxyS
Quick math on the iOS app economy:

> The app revolution has added more than 210,000 iOS jobs to the U.S. economy
> since the introduction of iPhone in 2007

> Apple has paid more than $4 billion in royalties to developers through the
> App Store

The app store has been around since summer '08, so let's say it's been around
for 3.5 years.

$4B / 210,000 / 3.5 = $5442.17 per annum

Converted to an hourly wage, that's $2.62/hr (or $454 monthly). Way below
minimum wage. Either Apple has some funky math going on here, or they've
created 210k very crappy jobs.

Note: I'm ignoring Advertising and B2B revenue here, so when you factor that
in I'm sure the gross product jumps quite a bit. Still, Apple ignores that
part of the market as well, so either they should publish a gross product for
the iOS economy, or they're leading me to the conclusion above.

~~~
pooriaazimi
Some notes, on why I think your calculation while interesting, is way off:

1\. You shouldn't consider summer 2008 as _epoch_.

2\. Not all of those $4B were paid to US developers (I'd guess less than 60%
of that)

3\. A huge number of apps (thousands) on the App Store are free (from Google,
Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, ...) - For all we know, all such _free_ apps have
been created by a team of 10-15 iOS developers/testers/etc.

I'm also skeptical about the claim, but I think that your calculation wasn't a
good one.

~~~
b0sk
Well. in actuality the $4B is paid according to Pareto distribution ( Pareto
principle). That means a small chunk of developers with highly successful apps
are going to get a large chunk of that $4B. This makes Apple's claim actually
worse.

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tlack
I wish Apple would turn its gift for innovation toward manufacturing so they
can bring those jobs back home to America, or at least some percentage of
them. That would be a very noble effort on their part.

~~~
w1ntermute
Steve Jobs told Obama point blank that those jobs are never coming back. We're
better off looking for alternatives.

~~~
v2interactive
Oh, so now he's an economist as well? Interesting.

~~~
doctorwho
They know the jobs aren't coming here. We know it. So why do they try and
distract us with this fluffy propaganda? Apple thinks we're all stupid. As
long as their share price keeps climbing they'll keep doing shit like this,
and PROVE that we're all stupid.

~~~
joelrunyon
Isn't 1/2 million jobs better than one at all? You sound like you want Apple
to disappear from the face of the earth.

~~~
doctorwho
No, they're big and successful and I buy their products. I just want them to
be honest.

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kumarm
Trying to bring back manufacturing to US seems a short sighted move. As 3D
printing improves, is there really a future for manufacturing? Future
Generations are not going to buy manufactured products from China, they are
gonna print at local mall.

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noodly
Apple: 514 000 jobs

Healthcare: 14 336 000 jobs [1]

Healthcare embarrasses Apple.

[1] <http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs035.htm>

~~~
quesera
Umm. Healthcare is an industry that touches 100% of citizens' lives.

Apple is a corporation that sells a few percent of the computers and phones
bought each year.

What is embarrassing about that?

~~~
noodly
Apple says, "As a result, we’ve created or supported more than 500,000 jobs
for U.S. workers: from the engineer who helped invent the iPad to the delivery
person who brings it to your door" [1]

It tries to include every person, just to make the number of jobs higher (it
even includes healthcare workers).

Healthcare includes only jobs strictly associated with it - and that's
embarrassing for Apple which had to include other industries.

"47,000 jobs at Apple" [1] - that's the real number of Apple jobs, and it's
comparable with Intel (45375 jobs, 55% of their worldwide employment) [2]

[1] <http://www.apple.com/about/job-creation/>

[2] <http://bit.ly/AdgusU> [PDF] Intel "2010 Annual Report and Form 10-K"

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doctorwho
Apple fanboys calm down! I'm not mad about how well Apple is doing, they'e
earned their success. They've made some great products and they've made some
great business decisions, like using offshore manufacturing.

My complaint with Apple is with choice to start a dishonest conversation about
jobs in the US instead of talking about why they use foreign manfacturing.
They don't want to talk about their "China problem" because it's unpopulart so
they spin a story about how many US jobs they have created to distract you.

If they were proud of their offshore manufacturing, why don't they have a page
about that? Don't hold your breath waiting ro that one.

Why would they put that page up? What's in it for them? It distracts you from
the problem and makes you like them for creating jobs they _had_ to create
anyay.

~~~
glassx
> They don't want to talk about their "China problem"

What else do you want Apple to say?

It is common knowledge that they outsource manufacturing overseas, and it's
common knowledge that they do it simply to maximize profits, however, it's not
something to be publicly proud or ashamed of, it's just business.

Making lots of jobs in America, OTOH, is very positive.

~~~
doctorwho
They don't just want to avoid talking about it, they are actively working to
spin it. If they had said nothing about jobs in the US, which came completely
out of nowhere, I would have a lot more respect for them. They are acting
ashamed by trying to distract everyone. Yes, be proud that you created jobs,
but be honest about why you're suddenly trying to draw attention to that fact.

