Apple Will Create 20,000 US Jobs Over the Next 5 Years

January 18, 2018

Yesterday, Apple announced that the company will invest $30 billion in capital expenditures in the U.S. over the next five years and create 20,000 new jobs.

In all, Apple says that it expects to contribute $350 billion dollars to the U.S. economy during that time “not including Apple’s ongoing tax payments, the tax revenues generated from employees’ wages and the sale of Apple products.”

The company currently has 84,000 workers located in the U.S. and about 130,000 employees around the globe.

In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the US economy. We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible.

The tech giant will also pay a $38 billion one-time repatriation tax to move billions of dollars to the U.S. from tax havens abroad.

Is Tax Reform Responsible?

President Trump and GOP leaders were quick to attribute Apple’s move to tax reform. Trump called the decision a “huge win for American workers and the USA!”

“I promised that my policies would allow companies like Apple to bring massive amounts of money back to the United States,” Trump tweeted. “Great to see Apple follow through as a result of TAX CUTS.”

However, in an interview with ABC News, Tim Cook said, “Let me be clear: There are large parts of this that are a result of the tax reform, and there’s large parts of this we would have done in any situation.”

“The 20,000 jobs are nice,” writes Jordan Weissmann at Slate. “…But there’s no evidence, contra Fox’s talking heads, that they’re coming ‘back to America’ from anywhere. Meanwhile, it’s hard to tell if the $30 billion the company plans to spend would actually be a meaningful increase in its domestic U.S. investment.”

Weissman adds: “According to its annual reports, Apple has devoted $56.9 billion to capital expenditures worldwide over the past five years. Presumably, a good chunk of that was spent stateside, building out its retail network and its gleaming new Cupertino campus, for instance. But it’s hard to know how much.”