Apple: why doesn't it employ more US workers?

[alp227]

. In January, the New York Times ran a lengthy investigation of the technology firm's manufacturing processes, which began by disclosing a conversation in 2011 between Jobs and Barack Obama. The president asked why Apple products could not be made in the US. The most admired man in Silicon Valley was reportedly blunt: "Those jobs aren't coming back."

Very few people argued with that assessment. In other ways excellent, the New York Times' piece had an elegiac tone, conveyed by the headline How the US Lost Out on iPhone Work. And the following commentary went on in this it's-not-you-it's-me vein. It wasn't Apple's fault it didn't hire Americans to make its goods: it was America's. US workers weren't skilled enough; not enough of them were trained in engineering.

All this should be familiar to anyone who's followed the Westminster debate on globalisation, where prime ministers from Thatcher to Blair to Cameron have agreed that if Britain is to attract employers, its workers need to shape up. Students need to brain up and get degrees, adults need to retrain or sharpen up their attitudes. Even then, the British have to prepare for a post-industrial future, where they do the design and marketing and the Chinese (or the Indians, or the Vietnamese) make the goods.

Such national self-abasement has the merit of at least feeling like a policy; but it's debatable whether on its own it really will pull in big employers. Apple, after all, used to base its manufacturing in the US. Jobs used to boast about how the Mac was "a machine that is made in America". And according to new research given exclusively to the Guardian by the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (Cresc), it's clear that it would not only be affordable for Apple still to make its goods in America, it would remain hugely profitable.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/23/bad-apple-employ-more-us-workers

[yourout]

1. I call bullshit......the only reason they are not coming back is they work cheap.

Not skilled enough my ass.

[Skittles]

3. that's their excuse

as someone who as seen the "talent" of Offshore work up close I can tell you it is COMPLETE bullshit

[alfredo]

8. If they brought the assembly back to the US, what about suppliers?

Apple would still have to get chips and circuit boards from somewhere. This isn't just Apple, it is the electronic industry. These makers have to be nimble enough to jump from one supplier to the next. They need several suppliers for the same part to insure an uninterrupted supply. Can we do that in the near future?

Until we can build the support infrastructure, it's going to be difficult to repatriate our computer industry. We need to ask, how much of their customer base is in the US, and how much is in Asia? Which market has the most growth potential?

I'd love to see Apple and the other tech companies move home, but I know it would be difficult and costly even if all concerned wanted to return.

[Skittles]

2. and yet there's DUers who will pimp for Apple

[alfredo]

9. If you wanted to build a computer, where will you find the parts suppliers?

[gateley]

13. And DUers who think Apple is the only one who offshores. They probably pimp for Dell.

[Kablooie]

16. Foxconn in China makes 60% of all the world's electronics for every company.

[gateley]

19. I learned that recently. And I can understand Apple being made the poster child

on this issue. But I have to laugh when people go "I boycott Apple! I will NEVER use any of their products!" -- typing furiously and self-righteously on their computer which most likely came from the same suppliers.

[DJ13]

4. How much skill is required to mount components on circuit boards?

Its not like all those young people in Foxxcon have PHD's.

[CBGLuthier]

5. Can't make record products and crush your rivals while paying people decent wages.

you think just overcharging for their products will keep those profits up?

[madrchsod]

6. that`s why they have 80+ billion in cash

cheap labor, the ability to buy components cheaper than their competitors, and controlling distribution of similar products. apple is far better than walmart when it comes to absolute control of the market/brand

[BanTheGOP]

7. Let's cut Apple some slack for now

Let's slow down on Apple and concentrate on the real 1%'ers. Get rid of the republican party first and we can take care of Apple in due time, but for now we need the apps to maintain our edge in getting the masses out to vote Democratic this time around. We can compensate the workers when all is said and done.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Apple is a real 1%er

and Dell and others are no better. So saying we should cut Apple some slack smacks of Iphone infatuation

[BanTheGOP]

17. NOrmally, I'd agree

But Apple has been front and center with working with groups like MoveOn and Daily Kos in their early days. IN addition, their employee base in the US are working constantly to keep jobs from moving oversees; after all, THEIR best interest lies in the fact that we must be fair as well.

And keep in mind that the "I-Phone infatuation" you infer my own position has nothing to do with the company itself. I am simply saying that in our war against the republican nazis, no matter where they are in the world or in what capacity or what skin they are composed of, must be fought with vigorous, anti-capitalist force.

Now, if you are accusing Apple as a 1%'er, then go to M$ and use Windows. Then you can become a 0.01%'er.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. Apple is trying to keep work domestic? The infamous Steve Jobs discussion with President Obama

would indicate otherwise. Apple is no saint and deserves no special place in the hearts of liberals and progressives. They are as least as bad as Dell and Walmart, some would argue worse with their false veneer of liberalism and compassion.

I use and contribute to Linux and other Open Source projects. That makes me a .000000001% or less. I use Windows when I must and will not use Apple products due to my ethical objections to their business practices, though not the ones being discussed in this thread

[treestar]

10. The labor is so much cheaper that it lowers the price of the product

And so more people can afford to buy the product.

It amazes me that transport costs don't overwhelm that.

[gateley]

11. Interesting article. If this is viable (and just doesn't "look good on paper") I think it could

benefit both Apple and the U.S. if it was to move its manufacturing back here.

At this point Apple has made it and if they're able to keep presenting products as trend-setting as it did when Jobs was alive, they'll continue to be successful. Instead of making $452 in profit on an iPhone, it could conceivably make $337 per. As the article states, what company wouldn't love that profit margin?

And the writer points to Ford who hired workers at a good rate so they could afford to buy his cars. If things keep going like they have been, not as many Americans will be able to keep buying Apple products.

I'm one of the ones who loves Apple products, and I want them to keep making the good stuff, but I think they could afford to move back home if these numbers presented are realistic.

Think of the number of jobs that would be created. Apple could go a long way in helping America get back on track! Wonder what all the Apple haters will bitch about then?

[Fumesucker]

12. OK, it's time for bed...

I read that as: Apathy: why doesn't it employ more US workers?

[Kablooie]

14. Foxconn has a million, yes, literally a MILLION workers in China.

Their factories are full cities complete with sports stadiums, shopping malls and public swimming pools.

The workers range from 16 (legal working age in China) to 25. A worker works 2 to 5 years then leaves. They work as hard as they can for a short period to take back savings to their rural homes. There are no older workers.

There is nearly no automation. Everything is done by hand. Millions of hands.

The only requirement for employment is that they can talk and take orders. Thousands line up for the mind numbingly tedious jobs, every day.

I don't see how this could be duplicated here in the US.

I heard all this tonight at a live talk by journalist Rob Schmitz from American Public Radio's Marketplace how. He is their China correspondent and is the person who discovered that the This American Life report about Apple in China was untrue. He speaks fluent Chinese and visited the factories and talked with dozens of Foxconn workers there. He even joined one worker's trip home and met his family in a rural farming area.

Foxconn makes 60% of the world's electronics from all companies, not just Apple.