700,000 Employess Work Making Apple Products Outside of the U.S.

[JCMach1]

per CNNI.

Maybe it's time to boycott them and some of our other technology companies until they bring the jobs home.


In positive news FOXCONN is actually beginning to make some changes after all the scrutiny.

[leftyohiolib]

1. never bought apple anything (so far as i know) so iguess i always have been boycotting apple

now im glad i didnt (buy apple that is )

[thecrow]

2. Imagine if Apple brought all those jobs back at once

Think it would boost the economy any ??

[exboyfil]

3. Any good economists out there who can estimate

how much more the products would cost if they were assembled in the U.S.?

Made in America used to be a marketing strategy. Any patriots left?

[JCMach1]

4. or even 1/2

Add in the magnifier effect and you have an economic recovery and that's just one of the companies...

What about Motorola, Dell, HP, etc.? It isn't just Apple... America would be booming right now, but we're not...

[woo me with science]

5. Imagine the company loyalty they could build,

and the positive press in this political climate.

[FarCenter]

6. If they brought the jobs to the US, the cost of an iPhone would skyrocket and volume would plummet

So the result would be lots fewer jobs than 700,000 (even if that dubiously round number is correct).

The alternatives would be to either:
- pay US workers the same as Asian workers are getting,
- or to largely automate the production, leading to far fewer but higher paid jobs.

[DotGone]

8. No it wouldn't. US labor would add only $65 to the cost of an iPhone

US labor would add only $65 to cost of an iPhone. Labor costs are a small component of the price. Profit makes up ~50% of the cost of an iPhone which is an insane margin. Apple makes $300+ profit per phone. Apple's moving production back to the US is a pipe dream. They'll never give up that money.

[Johnson20]

11. Only $65. Scheech. n/t

[FarCenter]

13. $65 is way low

700,000 employees * 1600 hours/year * $35 /hour fully loaded labor cost = $39.2 Billion.

Apple sold just under 20 milliion iPhones in 2011. So if half the 700 K employees were making iPhones, and the other half making other things, the labor cost per iPhone would be $1000 per phone in the us.

It is way less than that now -- since an iPhone without contract is around $800. And $800 retail means that the phone costs less than $200 parts and labor FOB the factory.

So if you add $800 to the $200 FOB factory cost, given the retail markup, you are now up to 4*$1000 = $4000/unit.

You might argue that the factory cost to retail factor should be smaller, but I've never seen any part of the distribution channel give up their percentage markup.

[flexnor]

7. no no no, apple good, critics bad

what's more important is that the owner proved you could have multiple billions, even if he couldnt take it with him

that's what matters

pay no attention to the money sent out of the country, and slave labor behind the curtain

[Safetykitten]

9. How sad it is for us as a country to be debating where a phone is made.

[Johnson20]

10. Well said!!!! n/t

[flexnor]

12. once upon a time, phones were made in the USA

and we had a positive trade ballance, were a manufacturing leader and had very little debt

it wasnt the phones alone that did it, but they are a symptom

[FarCenter]

14. Western Electric's plants in Indianapolis and Shreveport closed soon after 1984

The anti-trust suit judgement against the Bell System resulted in the closure of US telephone factories in places like Indianapolis.

Although the FCC interconnect decisions had been eroding US market share even earlier.

[Pisces]

15. It doesn't matter how many negative stories come out about Apple, their products will sell because

they are the best and have become indispensable among all age groups. I predict iPad 3 will have record number of sales
and the iPhone 5 will eclipse all other iPhone sales.