Apple's Austin campus now up to 6,000 workers as company touts 2M US jobs since 2007
In a weekend profile of Apple's campus in Austin, Tex., the company claimed that it has created over 2 million jobs in the U.S. since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007.
That number includes "explosive growth in iOS developers, thousands of new supplier and manufacturing partners, and a 400 percent increase in our employee teams," Apple said in a statement to the New York Times. Its own workforce includes about 80,000 people.
The company added that it "made the unique decision to keep and expand our contact centers for customers in the Americas in the United States," and plans to "continue to invest and grow across the U.S."
Much of the company's tech support staff is based at its Austin campus, which in the last seven years has grown from holding 2,100 workers to about 6,000, aided by a recent major expansion. The facility also handles supplier operations, finances, Maps development, and various iTunes and App Store tasks.
While the average pay for an Apple call center worker is just $30,000 per year, people who graduate to permanent status can take home $45,000 plus benefits and annual stock grants. Overall the average salary at the Austin campus -- including management staff, but excluding benefits and stocks -- is $77,000 per year.
A perk of working at the campus is that workers are encouraged to try out other positions, which can potentially lead to dramatic career shifts. Apple is working on formalizing the program, allowing people to test different jobs in six-month stints.
That number includes "explosive growth in iOS developers, thousands of new supplier and manufacturing partners, and a 400 percent increase in our employee teams," Apple said in a statement to the New York Times. Its own workforce includes about 80,000 people.
The company added that it "made the unique decision to keep and expand our contact centers for customers in the Americas in the United States," and plans to "continue to invest and grow across the U.S."
Much of the company's tech support staff is based at its Austin campus, which in the last seven years has grown from holding 2,100 workers to about 6,000, aided by a recent major expansion. The facility also handles supplier operations, finances, Maps development, and various iTunes and App Store tasks.
While the average pay for an Apple call center worker is just $30,000 per year, people who graduate to permanent status can take home $45,000 plus benefits and annual stock grants. Overall the average salary at the Austin campus -- including management staff, but excluding benefits and stocks -- is $77,000 per year.
A perk of working at the campus is that workers are encouraged to try out other positions, which can potentially lead to dramatic career shifts. Apple is working on formalizing the program, allowing people to test different jobs in six-month stints.
Comments
Wow. Sometimes, pigs do fly.
Of course, you might be saying that Apple might be exaggerating facts here, but in my experience, companies such as Apple, concerned about a reputation protect, tend to be conservative making such claims. Their lawyers and board members will likely have been all over it, and anything that can't be substantiated clearly have likely been erased or modified.
More to the point, if you're really interested in getting an answer, have you written to the author of the NYT piece and ask how she evaluated Apple's claims? Unless, of course, you just want to throw out a bunch or rhetorical questions (with possibly an agenda) in a Forum where it's unlikely that anyone has an answer?
Not trying to be callous or unsympathetic but the cruel reality of capitalism is that no matter what or for how long you invest in your career training and growth you can always be replaced when the revenue generating models change and you are no longer needed in your current capacity. It's not just miners or railroad workers or assembly line workers. It's just about everyone in the workforce. Millions of very cutting edge degreed and non-degreed technical workers most of whom were extensively trained, educated, skilled, and highly credentialed helped support, and ultimately win both the Space Race and the Cold War. When the race was over and the war was won (by America and democracy no less) those workers were cast aside just like laid off coal miners and manual assembly line workers. Those Space Race/Cold War workers had to refocus, retrain, and take personal responsibility for figuring out how the heck they were going to continue to receive a paycheck. Nobody took up their cause, much less an elected president. The ones who survived and prospered were the ones who took personal responsibility for their destiny and didn't sit around waiting on manna from Washington to save their bacon.
Seeing where (skills, education, technology, geography, markets, etc.) the new economy and companies like Apple are creating job opportunities is a wake up call to each and every individual who wants to prosper in the new economy. You have a choice - you can rely on yourself and your own skills, perseverance, and resiliency and take an active role in shaping your future - or you can wait for a handout from yet another huckster selling promises you know in your heart of hearts will never happen. Turning back the clock and hoping for the resurrection of a new economy based on a revisionist reality of an old economy gone by (gone bye-bye) is like putting your faith in a cement-filled life preserver. My advice - believe, and invest, in yourself and the future and leave the past in the past.
I thought he used an iPhone.