Creating jobs through innovation

Over the years, Apple has driven incredible job growth and created entirely new industries. In fact, our products and innovations have led to almost 2 million U.S. jobs — from our engineers and retail employees to suppliers, manufacturers, and app developers.

2015 Update

As of December 2015, Apple is responsible for creating and supporting 1.9 million jobs. Nearly three-quarters of those jobs — 1.4 million — are attributable to the iOS ecosystem. Our spend and investment with thousands of US-based suppliers supports 361,000 jobs, and we now directly employ more than 76,000 people in the US, representing nearly two‑thirds of Apple’s worldwide team.

Read more: apple.com/pr

The 2014 Numbers at a Glance

1,027,000

U.S. jobs created or supported by Apple

627k

Jobs attributable to the iOS ecosystem1

334k

Jobs at other companies resulting from Apple’s spending and growth2

66k

Apple employees in the U.S.

The App Economy

Apple ignited the app revolution with the launch of the App Store in 2008. Since then, an entire industry has been built around app design and development. In just six years, the iOS ecosystem has helped create over 627,000 jobs, and U.S.-based developers have earned more than $8 billion from App Store sales worldwide.

A recent APPNATION study projects that the overall app economy will exceed $150 billion worldwide within three years, with the industry continuing to create more job openings than can be filled.

380k

Members of Apple’s paid developer program

$8b+

Of App Store income earned by U.S. developers

78%

Of companies making apps located outside of Silicon Valley3

Spotlight on Developers

The App Store has opened up enormous opportunities by enabling developers to reach tens of millions of customers around the world.

Jobs at Apple

The number of employees directly employed by Apple has grown nearly sixfold over the past 10 years, at a time when overall employment in the U.S. has stagnated. In the past year alone, Apple has added more than 9,000 jobs, and approximately two-thirds of our worldwide team remains in the U.S.

Jobs at Apple span a wide range of roles — artists, designers, scientists, operations, construction, manufacturing, retail, tech support, sales, marketing, and the best hardware and software engineers in the world.

View all current positions at Apple

52k

Jobs added in the past decade

50

States with full‑time Apple employees

Apple Retail

Our 265 retail stores across 44 states average over 100 employees each — the majority of whom are full‑time employees hired from the local community. Unlike most retailers, we don’t rely on seasonal hiring. And part‑time Apple Store employees are eligible for the same benefits as our full‑time staff, including health insurance and the employee stock purchase plan.

30,000

U.S. retail employees

265

Apple stores in the U.S.

100+

Locally hired employees per store on average

20,000

Construction‑related jobs created to build Apple stores

Supporting Economies Throughout the U.S.

Apple directly or indirectly supports roughly 400,000 jobs in the U.S. These jobs include numerous industries, from the people who create components for our products to the people who build the planes and trucks that carry them to our customers. Together with over 627,000 jobs generated by the iOS ecosystem, there are over 1 million U.S. jobs created or supported by Apple.

Apple contributes to the American economy in many other ways. The phenomenal growth of iPhone alone has added an estimated one-quarter to one-third of a percentage point to the annualized growth rate in the U.S. gross domestic product.4 And our focus on domestic manufacturing has resulted in thousands of jobs in communities both big and small.

Thirty-one of the 50 states provide parts, materials, or equipment to make Apple products. This manufacturing spans an incredible range of industries with suppliers from coast to coast. For example, some iMac models are assembled and tested in California. Many of the processors that go into Mac are from Arizona. Indiana contributes sophisticated manufacturing using high-performance alloys to ensure that our products hold up under tough conditions. Kentucky continues to be a major provider of glass for iPhone and iPad. And the cardstock for our beautiful letterpress cards comes from Wisconsin.

8,000

U.S.‑based suppliers supporting Apple operations worldwide

31

States providing parts, materials, or equipment for Apple products

Supplier Diversity

For more than 20 years, Apple has supported tens of thousands of businesses through our Supplier Diversity Program. Last year we spent more than $3 billion directly with U.S. suppliers running small or diverse businesses. We actively promote business opportunities through many partner organizations such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the National Veteran-Owned Business Association, and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

In 2014 Apple helped launch the White House’s SupplierPay initiative. The program provides expedited payment and access to lower-cost financing for small businesses contributing to our supply chain across America. We are proud to be recognized as one of America’s Top Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities, a Diversity Business Top 50 Corporation Doing Business with Diverse Suppliers, and an MBN USA Top 100 Supplier Diversity Leader. We’ve also earned a perfect score of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

$3b

Spent directly with small or diverse suppliers in the U.S.

National Minority Supplier Development Council

National Veteran-Owned Business Association

Women’s Business Enterprise National Council

National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

Mac Pro

When we began work on Mac Pro, we considered every element that defines a pro computer — graphics, storage, expansion, processing power, memory — and we wanted it all to be designed and assembled in the U.S. In fact, we’ve invested more than $100 million to bring the manufacturing and assembly of Mac Pro to Austin, Texas, and partnered with 24 different companies in that state alone.

Along the way, we sought help from dozens of component and equipment suppliers in multiple states. Places like Florence, Kentucky, where we found the lathes and tooling equipment necessary to produce Mac Pro. And Elk Grove Village, Illinois, where a company called Metal Impact creates the revolutionary cylindrical aluminum enclosure.

When we initially reached out to Metal Impact, it was primarily working with aluminum in the automotive industry. Alongside its team, we created an entirely new process and supply chain, conducting more than 40 experiments with 10 different alloys on multiple aluminum mills. The result is arguably the most beautiful Mac ever, along with new jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for a small Illinois company.

Apple Campus 2

Apple’s new Cupertino campus is expected to support 41,100 jobs across Santa Clara County by the time it is completed. Among them will be 12,600 full-time construction jobs over the three-year construction period.

We have approached this project with the same care and attention to detail we devote to designing any Apple product. We will replace 2.65 million square feet of environmentally and operationally obsolete buildings with a 2.8-million-square-foot iconic, 21st-century research and development campus.

In building the new facility, Apple turned to family-owned Clark Pacific to make the void slabs that serve as both the ceiling of one floor and support for the raised surface of the floor above. Clark Pacific developed a unique structural design to meet the demands of Apple Campus 2, and the project has led to unprecedented growth and hiring for the company. It now has four plants dedicated to producing products directly related to the project. The innovation and manufacturing that went into Apple Campus 2 have also enabled Clark Pacific to expand to other large-scale construction projects up and down the West Coast.

Data Centers

Apple’s data centers power services like iTunes, the App Store, and Siri. They have generated thousands of local jobs in California, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oregon through their design, buildout, and ongoing maintenance. In Maiden, North Carolina, for example, our data center created more than 1,000 construction jobs, and over 95 percent of the facility’s operations staff were hired locally.

We also work with clean energy companies to develop our power-generation systems, which run all of Apple’s data centers using entirely renewable energy. This commitment to reducing our impact on climate change has contributed to green industry growth with partners that build solar fields, install directed biogas facilities, and create micro-hydro systems.

U.S.-Based Customer Support

While many companies locate their technical support call centers overseas, we’ve kept the vast majority of call centers in the U.S. Relocating these call centers overseas to places like India would reduce costs by at least a third. But we keep these jobs in the U.S. because it helps us deliver a better customer experience. It’s also an important reason why Apple’s technical support has led the industry for more than a decade.

19,000

U.S.-based jobs supporting AppleCare

8,000

Home-based AppleCare Advisors

28

Call centers in 18 states

700

Advisors working for AppleCare while earning their college degrees