Apple Has Killed a Half Million Jobs

BusinessInsider doubts Apple's job-creation claim
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2012 5:36 PM CDT
Apple Has Killed a Half Million Jobs
This April 5, 2012 photo shows the company logo at the Apple Store in London.   (AP Photo/dapd, Martin Oeser)

Accused of shipping American jobs overseas, Apple reacted by saying it has actually created US jobs—some 514,000 in fact. Now BusinessInsider takes a closer look at the numbers and finds that the tech behemoth has actually eliminated 490,570 positions, nearly the same amount it has created. Here's the breakdown:

  • Circuit City: 42,974 layoffs. Apple's seizure of the PC market, and the fall of LCD TV prices, spelled doom for Best Buy's only real competitor.

  • Federal government: 42,105 layoffs. Apple saved $2.4 billion in tax loopholes last year, according to a recent article. That adds up to some 42,000 lost government jobs.
  • Kodak: 28,000 layoffs. The iPhone played a big role in eliminating interest in film cameras. The 131-year-old Kodak company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
  • Hewlett Packard: 16,995 layoffs. The once-dominant PC computer maker is now merely an "afterthought." And its touchpad failed miserably. Thousands of layoffs have followed in recent years.
For more layoffs that BusinessInsider blames on Apple, click here. (More Apple stories.)

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