Labor Market – Apple, Inc

Labor Market – Apple, Inc Introduction Labor market is an informal (casual) market where people search for paying jobs and the employers recruit people who are willing to work and offer their skills and expertise. Apple is a multinational corporation that is well-known for its outstanding designs as well as marketing of consumer products. Examples of these products include Mac and mobile operating systems and media browsers (iTunes), just to mention a few. The involvement of Apple with these products is the key determinant of the labor market it draws. Nevertheless, the greatest percentage of people working for Apple is drawn from America, simply because this company is American-owned.

Buy this excellently written paper or order a fresh one from acemyhomework.com

LABOR MARKET-APPLE, INC 2 The main purpose of this essay is to examine how the Apple Company obtains candidates from the labor market to fill some of its positions. As stated by (Holzner & Larch 2011), the outcomes of a labor market are affected by trade liberalization. In order to secure a job opportunity with Apple Company, one has to have a university degree, or a well-known college certificate due to the high competition of job seekers. Since Apple has a number of subsidiary companies around the world, a number of foreign job seekers have been able to secure jobs with this company.

Company Background Apple is a large corporation that employees almost 47,000 employees who have been working as full-time employees and about 3,000 workers who work as casuals (US Department of Labor, 2011). Apple is owned by the late Steve Jobs and Wozniak, who started by developing computers in the year 1976 (Bielak, et al 2010). Jobs specialized in developing Apple computers, whereas Wozniak specialized in marketing them (Apple.com, 2011). Jobs and Wozniak developed strong bonds as they designed and sold their products. Due to high expenses in computer products, Job concentrated on designing products which were cost-effective. This is where their focus was drawn. Apart from its headquarters location (United States of America), Apple has a number of subsidiary companies located in Paris and Tokyo, with main emphasis being placed on engineering operations.

Apple currently employs direct and in-direct workers who work in a number of companies that have been acquired by Apple. Examples of these companies include NeXt and Emagic among others. Most of these companies specialize in software development, telecommunication, marketing, programming, and electrical, just to mention a few. Apple’s achievement is built around its talented workers and has promised to never let go of them.

LABOR MARKET-APPLE, INC 3 According to Apple.com (2011), Apple employs people with recognized high school degrees, degrees from recognized universities, and masters degrees, with work experience ranging from 0 to 20 years. As stated by Randewich (2012), Apple recorded sales of about $65.2 billion for the year ending 2010. With this record, a total of $14.0 billion was stated as profits. This figure increased in 2011 with total sales of $80.0 billion.

Training Apple has been able to keep its staff motivated through training, which is the key element in ensuring that they are well informed of the market concepts. Consistent training also ensures that the workers understand the standards of the company’s operations. New employees in this company are able to access hard copies as well as online manuals that enable them to prepare themselves on the technical skills required in their acquired positions. The company ensures that these training manuals are up-to-date, especially those retrieved from online databases (Stead, Staric & Stead, 2003).

Managers in the recruiting department ensure that all the employees receive the right orientation, especially when filling new and open positions. Apple takes training as an investment because the management believes that the workers will be able to establish contacts with prospective customers. Training in Apple is the backbone of all tasks, and that is why the right skills are required to go in line with the current as well as the future goals of the company (Apple.com, 2011).

Other than training new employees, Apple also ensures that there is continuous training to the existing employees in order to enhance teem-building as well as enforce capacity (Stead, Staric & Stead, 2003). This move has benefited the employees as well as Apple as a corporate

LABOR MARKET-APPLE, INC 4 company since employees have the opportunity to interact and share ideas as well as promote effective working.

Employee training is aligned to the company’s compensation policy, where the employees with the right qualifications are provided with benefits and awards. Staff members with immense knowledge about the company are given the opportunity to train new employees about the company’s operations (Stead, Staric & Stead, 2003). For future reference, employees are provided with the correct and current materials (during training); this also helps the trainees in acquiring valuable information. Projectors are used during training in order to simulate visual sessions, succeeded by an evaluation of employees (Stead, Staric & Stead, 2003).

Apple’s organizational integration has contributed to its growth, especially with the availability of the engineering professionals. During its implementation in 2006, Apple iPod employed approximately 6,100 workers in Cupertino, California (Lazonick, 2009). This figure represents about 64 percent of US’s Apple labor force and 15 percent of its global labor force working on the iPod. Further studies show that these professionals received an average of $85,000 annually as their earnings. US non-professionals working for Apple received rather a less figure estimated to be less than $26,000 on average.

Apple decided to venture into the Asian market and seek interested workers in order to compensate hours that had been reduced (Randewich, 2012). This move by Apple was also an opportunity for them to better the labor conditions found in the Asian cities. Apple’s plan to hire thousands of workers in China, as well as improve the housing conditions of the workers, is seen as a strategy that will improve the wage rate especially in the manufacturing industry (Randewich, 2012). In addition to improving the housing conditions for the China workers for the Foxonn production company, Apple would also raise the wages for the workers while cutting

LABOR MARKET-APPLE, INC 5 on illegal over time hours. Hiring more workers would ensure workers do not work over time (Randewich 2012). These are steps that are meant to affect the labour market since the move puts Apple's competitors like Nokia and HP among others under pressure. The pressure is however not so much since it is estimated that labour contributes to only a small percent of at most 5% of the cost of the iPhones made by Apple. All in all, the move is deemed to lead to compliance with the Fair Labour Association (FLA) which has already unearthed these violations in Foxconn plants.

Conclusion Due to the nature of work offered by Apple Inc., it is now clear that job seekers must possess the right qualifications in order to have a place in this company. Due to the high level of competition, most people have not been able to secure a job with this company, simply because it is demanding; only those with the required qualifications are lucky. Apple’s mode of training and motivating workers has been the pillar of its success. As stated above, training provides the employees with the right information, which enables them to be effective in their specified roles.

Training also enables the workers to relate together, sharing positive ideas that will contribute to the success of the company. The mode of training is also important in ensuring that all workers are informed about the company as well as the global market. Apple’s mode of training new and existing staff is one that reflects a company that has a vision for growth.

LABOR MARKET-APPLE, INC 6 References Apple.com (2011). Company history. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.applehistory.com/?page=history&section=h1 Bielak, M., Henriquez W., McNeil S., Ogozaly A., Rubino E., & Sullivan K. (2010). Apple Inc: Parent company overview. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.boydassociates.net/Stonehill/bus336/BUS336%20grp%20projects/Apple %20-%20India.pdf Holzner, C., & Larch M. (2011). Capacity constraining labor market frictions in a global economy. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/documents/genericdocument/ wcms_158396.pdf Lazonick, W. (2009). Apple’s Jobs: A rebirth of innovation in the US economy? Roosevelt Institute.

Randewich, N. (2012). Apple labor plan to ripple through China factories. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/us-apple-foxconn-manufacturingidUSBRE82T02R20120330 Stead, E., Staric M., & Stead J. (2003). Sustainable strategic management. Sharpe, Inc. New York, NY. US Department of Labor, (2011). Labor highlights. Retrieved June 7, 2012 from http://www.dol.gov/dol/