Apple's real worth: How many U.S. jobs it creates

[Renew Deal]

<snip>
A study by researchers at UC Irvine (PDF) found that the iPod was responsible for creating nearly 14,000 jobs in the United States and another 27,000 abroad. And those numbers are a few years old. Given the age of the product today, the iPod may not be generating many new jobs, but think of the positions that have been created subsequently by the far more complex iPhone and iPad.

What brings that to mind is Apple's claim to the title of the world's richest public company. At market close yesterday, the company's market cap -- the number of outstanding shares multiplied by their price -- hit $337 billion, surpassing that of ExxonMobil by about $6 billion. Think of it: A company that lives in the digital world, a world that only existed as a thought experiment a few generations ago, is more valuable as one of the world's largest oil companies.

But this is not just a case of Apple exceptionalism. It turns out that Apple is hardly the only IT company sitting atop that mountain of riches. Four of the six richest companies (also by market cap) on the planet are Silicon Valley giants. They are, in order, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and Google. Chevron, that other oil giant, is No. 5, sitting between IBM and Google. Look a little further and you'll notice that Cisco Systems, Intel, and Oracle are among the 20 richest companies.

The number of people those companies employ worldwide is staggering: more than 500,000. Large as it is, that number understates the impact those companies have on the worldwide economy. Although just 18,000 people work directly for Apple, there are hundreds of thousands more working at companies up and down the supply, support, and distribution chains.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/apples-real-worth-how-many-us-jobs-it-creates-169535

[tridim]

1. Locked up corporate cash is destroying the world economy

I know Apple can do no wrong, but they get no pass from me.

Jobs is just being a dick, which isn't a stretch for him.

[alc]

4. I hate apple and despise Jobs. but ...

What do you suggest Apple & Jobs do?

It's a serious question. I think we can all agree that corporations and CEOs are out to make money. Since they are primarily interested in making money, it's probably in our interest to find ways to work with them to do that AND create jobs. If nothing else, the more money they make, the more revenue the government collects from them (assuming we get rid of many loopholes). We talk so much about "their fair share" but don't step back and realize that they don't care about anyone else's definition of "fair share".

Global businesses have labor, infrastructure, and markets outside of the US to degrees way beyond what existed a few years ago. They also have communication methods to manage foreign operations (which are usually foreign corporations which gives the US very little if any say). Other countries give them good tax deals in order to get them to move operations to those countries. And those countries want jobs as much as (or more than ) the US so it's in their interest to provide legal protections from US taxes.

I'm not talking about sleazy island tax havens or some of the bogus purchases/mergers to avoid taxes. I'm talking about when a global business truly wants to grow and has different countries "bidding" on their location. How can we work with them to choose to grow in the US? Tariffs may "offset" the loss of jobs, but we aren't near the majority of world economy and are getting smaller every year - so they are balancing tariffs into the US vs corp taxes everywhere else in the world. So it's no good to tell them they can grow somewhere else and we'll make it up in tariffs.

[tridim]

5. Cancel their contracts in China, build new manufacturing plants in the US..

and hire Americans to build their premium priced products. It's the right thing to do, and everyone knows it.

A pipe dream I know, Apple has other plans for that money.

[golfguru]

6. Apple is a business first, philanthropy it is not

They are risking their capital where there is more bang for the buck, i.e. foreign countries. Corporations get huge tax breaks in some foreign countries, so that is where they set up shop. It is not rocket science.

[Cant trust em]

2. Interesting. I'll come back to this later. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Feh. The job creation thing is important, but...

that's the same as any new industry creating jobs. Ford and GM were huge net job creators when they started, too. And, ummm... how many jobs did the Sony Walkman create when it came out? Or the VCR? How many now? And, speaking of Apple, their real job creation was with the Apple II which was a major start for the whole computer thing.

But this market cap thing is bullshit-- it's just where major stock buyers are holding their money. I think it was in the 70s when Avon had a higher market cap than Ford because its chances for "growth" were better.

At the time market watchers thought this was hilarious because Ford actually owned factories, machinery, patents and lots of stuff considered valuable. A lot more than Avon owned. Ford could even conceivably stop making cars and trucks and live for a while just selling off its capital. But, Ford was considered old and feeble while Avon was poised for huge growth with more women around the world using more makeup.

So it is with Apple.

[OllieLotte]

7. We are fortunate that they are an American company.

The question is...how can we grow more companies like them?