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发帖数: 30882 | 1 纽约时报：美国人如何输掉了iPhone的工作
四月网 2012-02-06
《纽约时报》1月12日报道，原题：美国人如何输掉了iPhone的工作。以下是文章内容
摘编。
中国河南省2010年招聘会上，富士康科技有限公司的求职者蜂拥而至。
去年二月份，巴拉克•奥巴马在加利福尼亚参加矽谷名人们的晚宴，每个客人都
得到了一个向总统提问的机会。
但当斯蒂夫•乔布斯准备发问时，奥巴马总统打断了他，先提出了自己的一个问
题：怎样才能在美国生产iPhone？
不久之前，苹果还在吹嘘它的产品都是在美国生产的，今天事情已经完全不是这样了。
苹果公司去年卖出的7000万部iPhone、3000万部iPad和5900万部其他产品，几乎全是在
海外生产的。
奥巴马问，为什么不能把这些工作搬到家里来做？
乔布斯先生的回答含糊其辞，据参加宴会的人员回忆，他说：“这些工作回不来了。”
总统的发问触及了苹果公司的核心问题所在，这已经不仅仅是海外廉价劳动力的问题了
。苹果高层认为，海外工厂的规模、工人的灵活性、勤奋程度和操作技巧都已经超过了
美国工人。“美国制造”已经不是大部分苹果产品的明智选择。
苹果之所以成为全球最知名、最受敬仰、最被效仿的公司，部分原因在于其大师级的全
球化运作方式。去年，平均每位苹果官员给公司带来超过40万美元的收入，这个数字高
于高盛、埃克森石油和谷歌。
然而，让奥巴马和一些经济学家以及政策制定者们郁闷的是，苹果连同很多高科技公司
在为美国人创造就业机会方面，不像其它著名公司在强盛期时那样的主动。
苹果在美国有4.3万名员工，在海外有2万名员工，这只是通用汽车在50年代40万美国工
人的若干分之一，也是通用电气在80年代数十万名工人的一小部分。更多的人是为苹果
的供应商工作：70万人参与设计、制作、组装iPad、iPhone和其它苹果产品，但几乎都
是在美国之外。他们是为亚洲、欧洲和其它地区的公司工作，几乎所有的电子设备设计
厂家都把生产任务交给这些工厂。
在去年担任白宫经济顾问的Jared Bernstein说：“苹果的例子说明，在美国本土创造
中产阶级就业岗位为什么会那么难。如果这是资本主义的发展瓶颈，我们的担心就不是
多余的了。”
苹果高管说，在目前这个阶段，海外生产是他们的唯一选择。一位前公司高管曾经描述
，公司是怎样依赖一家中国工厂在产品预计上架销售几个星期之前给iPhone做彻底翻新
的。苹果在最后一刻更改了iPhone的屏幕设计，导致整条流水线需要改装。新的屏幕面
板在午夜运达工厂。一位工头在公司的宿舍中立即召集了8000名工人，每个人发一块饼
干和一杯茶，半个小时之内在岗位上就位，开始长达12小时的工作班次。他们把每一块
新屏幕镶嵌到面板上。仅仅用了96个小时，这家工场的产量就达到每天1万台iPhone。
这位高管说：“他们的速度和灵活性令人不敢相信，没有一家美国工场能与之匹敌。”
任何一家电子公司都能举出类似的例子，外包已经成为各行各业通行的运作模式，包括
财务、法律、金融、汽车制造和制药。
但尽管苹果算不上特立独行，它却让人们有机会了解为什么成功的大公司没有带来本土
的就业机会。而且，公司的这种决定让人们更深入地猜想，在国际国内经济形势持续混
乱的情况下，美国公司究竟亏欠美国人什么。劳动部的首席经济学家Betsey Stevenson
说：“公司曾经把帮扶美国工人作为自身的责任，尽管这不一定是最好的盈利途径。但
是现在，这种精神消失了，盈利和效率超越了宽容和慷慨。”
而公司和其他经济学家认为这种说法是幼稚的。公司高管说，尽管美国人依然有世界上
受教育程度最高的工人，但他们已经不再培训工厂里需要的中等技能熟练工人。出于让
公司继续发展的考虑，他们需要把工作转移到可以产生足够利润以弥补创新成本的地方
去。否则，更多美国人的工作即将面临风险，就像那些曾经风光无限的本土制造商一样
——包括通用汽车和其它公司，当更灵活的竞争对手出现时，它们逐渐淡出市场。
《纽约时报》把这篇文章中的很多素材都提供给苹果，但这家公司秉承一贯的神秘色彩
，拒绝发表任何评论。
这篇文章的内容来源于对30多个现任和前任苹果公司员工和承包商的采访，其中大部分
人要求匿名以保护自己的工作。我们还采访了经济学家、制造业专家、国际贸易专家、
技术分析人士、学术研究人士、苹果供应商的员工、竞争对手、商业伙伴和政府官员。
苹果的高管在私下里说，在世界巨变的背景下，仅仅根据其员工数量来衡量一个公司的
贡献是错误的。当然他们也承认，苹果比以往雇用了更多的美国工人。苹果的成功在多
方面促进了经济发展：鼓励了很多企业家；为移动网络服务商和运输苹果产品的企业提
供了更多的就业机会。他们最终依然认为，自己并不负责研制治疗失业的药物。
一位苹果现任高管说：“我们在100多个国家销售iPhone，我们没有责任解决美国的问
题，我们唯一的责任是制作最好的产品。”
“我要一个玻璃屏。”
2007年，距离既定的iPhone上市销售日期还有一个月多一点的时间，乔布斯把几位高管
召集到办公室。几个月以来，他口袋里一直装着一部样机。
乔布斯生气地掏出iPhone，举着它调整角度，让每个人都能看到其塑料屏幕上的细小划
痕。然后，他从牛仔裤口袋里掏出一串钥匙。
他说，人们一般会把手机装在口袋里，钥匙也会装在口袋里。“我不想出售一个有划痕
的产品。”唯一的解决方法是使用高强度玻璃。“我要一个玻璃屏，我要在6个星期里
看到一个完美的玻璃屏。”
一名高管离开会议室后，立即订下一张飞往中国深圳的机票。如果乔布斯说要一个完美
的东西，他们没有其它选择。
两年多来，公司全力以赴地完成一个项目——代号Purple 2，在每一个转折点都出现了
同样的问题：怎样才能塑造一个全新的手机形象？怎样确保其具有最高的品质，例如防
划屏幕？怎样保证上百万台设备可以迅速并低价地生产出来，以获得足够大的利润？
几乎每一个问题最后都在美国之外找到了答案。不同版本产品的零部件稍有差异，但每
个iPhone都有数百个部件，其中90％产自海外。先进的半导体来自德国和台湾，存储卡
来自韩国和日本，显示屏和电路板来自韩国和台湾，处理器来自欧洲，稀有金属来自非
洲和亚洲。所有这一切在中国组装起来。
在苹果发展的早期，它从来不会在美国之外寻找生产基地。当Macintosh在1983年开始
生产之后，乔布斯曾经说它是“美国制造的机器”。1990年，当乔布斯运作NeXT时（后
来被苹果收购），一位管理人员对记着说：“像电脑一样值得我骄傲的还有工厂。”到
2002年，苹果公司的高管还时时驾车两小时，到公司总部东北部的加利福尼亚iMac工厂
去参观。
然而到了2004年，苹果已经把大部分生产基地转移到海外。引导这个决定的是苹果的运
营专家Timothy D. Cook，去年8月份，在乔布斯去世6个星期之前，他接替了首席执行
官的职务。大部分美国电子公司都已经开赴海外，在美国本土苦苦挣扎的苹果觉得必须
要抓住这个机会。
中国深圳富士康工厂里的一条产品线，iPhone就是在这个巨大的厂房里组装的。这里有
23万名员工，很多人在工厂里每天连续工作12个小时，一周6天。
亚洲的吸引力部分来自其廉价的半熟练工人，但这并不是苹果做出这个决定的重要原因
。对于科技公司来说，劳动力成本是微乎其微的，重头在于零部件采购和管理这些来自
上百个国家的零件和服务的供应链。
一位前苹果高管说，在库克先生看来，对亚洲的关注“有两个重要原因”。亚洲的工厂
“可以迅速膨胀和缩减”，“亚洲的供应链已经超过了美国”。结果就是“我们无法与
之竞争”。
当乔布斯在2007年要求使用玻璃屏幕时，上面这些优势立即显现出来。
多年来，手机制造商不使用玻璃屏幕的原因是，精密切割、打磨玻璃的工艺难度太高。
苹果已经选定一家美国公司Corning来生产大片强化玻璃，但是要想把它们切割成数百
万片iPhone屏幕，则需要找到一家空置的工厂、数百片用于实验的玻璃和一大批中等熟
练程度的工程师。仅仅准备这些资源就需要一笔巨款。
这时，从中国寄来了一份竞价单。
当苹果团队到现场参观时，中国的工厂主已经建立起一片新厂房。经理说：“这仅仅是
为我们有可能获得的合同做准备。”中国政府同意承担当地发展多样化产业的成本，这
些补贴已经注入这家玻璃工厂。厂房里堆满了玻璃样品，免费索取。厂主几乎没花什么
成本就招募到一批工程师。宿舍就建在车间旁边，工人随时都可以投入生产。
这家中国工厂中标了。
另外一位苹果前高管说：“中国具备完整的供应链。你需要一千个橡胶垫片吗？工厂就
在隔壁。需要一百万个螺丝钉？工厂就在马路对面。你觉得螺丝钉的型号需要稍作改动
？三个小时就好。”
富士康城
距这家玻璃工厂8小时车程的是一片工业园区，被俗称为富士康城，iPhone就是在那里
组装的。对苹果公司的高管来说，富士康城进一步证明中国的工人和努力程度已经远远
超过了美国。
因为美国没有像富士康城一样的东西。
这片园区有23万名员工，其中很多人每周工作6天，每天工作12个小时。四分之一富士
康员工住在公司的宿舍里，大多数人每天的工资不到17美元。有一次，苹果一位高管在
交接班时进入这个园区，他的汽车被员工人流堵得动弹不得。他说：“这种规模难以想
象。”
富士康聘请了300名保安，专门负责疏导人群，以免工人在一些出入口瓶颈处发生堵塞
。园区里的大食堂平均每天消耗3吨猪肉、13吨大米。生产车间虽然一尘不染，但旁边
的茶房则烟雾缭绕，弥漫着香烟的臭气。
富士康在亚洲、东欧、墨西哥和巴西就数十个市场园区，生产全球40％的消费电子产品
，客户包括亚马逊、戴尔、惠普、摩托罗拉、任天堂、诺基亚、三星和索尼。
苹果全球供需管理经理Jennifer Rigoni说：“他们可以在一夜之间招募3000名工人，
哪家美国工厂能这么快找到3000人，还说服他们住在公司宿舍里？”
到2007年中，经过一个月的试验，苹果的工程师最终找到完美切割强化玻璃的方法，并
且可以用于iPhone的屏幕。第一车玻璃到达富士康城的时候正是午夜，工厂经理叫醒了
数千名工人，这些人迅速穿上制服工装——男士的黑白衬衫、女士的红色衬衫——立即
开始手工组装设备。在三个月里，苹果售出了一百万部iPhone，富士康到现在已经生产
出2亿部iPhone。
公司的章程写道：“我们与聘请的每一位工人都有清晰的劳动合同，其内容和条款完全
遵照中国政府的法律，工人的权力被保护。富士康重视公司对员工的责任，我们努力为
一百多万员工提供安全、积极的工作环境。”
富士康对苹果前高管有关午夜临时开始工作的描述表示质疑，说这是不可能的，“因为
我们对员工的工时有严格的规定，每个人都被安排在固定的班次中。员工都在使用电子
化的工时卡，不可能在规定工时之外上班。”公司说所有的班次只会在早上7点或晚上7
点开始，如果需要调整班次，员工至少会在12个小时之前收到通知。
富士康的员工在接受采访时不同意这种说法。
苹果所获取的另外一个重大优势是，中国的工程师规模让美国难以企及。苹果高管估计
，富士康大约需要8700名工业工程师来监控20万名参与一线组装iPhone的工人。分析人
士预测，在美国，大约需要9个月的时间才能找到这么多合适的工程师。
在中国，只需要15天。
麻省理工大学副院长Martin Schmidt说，苹果一类的公司“总是说在美国设立工厂最大
的挑战是无法找到合适的技术工人”，特别是有高中学历但不一定有大学学历的人群。
公司的高管说这类美国人很少。“这都是很好的工作机会，但我们无法满足这种需求。”
iPhone在某些方面有独特的美国烙印，例如它的软件和新颖的市场策略，都是在美国本
土产生的。苹果最近斥资5亿美元在北加利福尼亚州建立了一个数据中心。iPhone 4和
4S核心的半导体部件是在得克萨斯奥斯汀，韩国三星工厂中生产的。
但这些工厂远远不能满足就业的需求。苹果位于加利福尼亚的总部只有100名全职员工
，三星工厂里大约有2400名工人。
Jean-Louis Gassée在1990年之前负责苹果公司的产品开发和推广工作，他说：“如果
手机的销量从100万部上升到3000万部，你也不需要更多的软件开发人员。那些新兴的
公司——脸谱、谷歌、推特——都因此而受益，他们的业务在增长，但不需要更多的人
力。”
我们很难估算iPhone在美国生产的成本将是多少，但是，很多学术界人士和生产业专家
都认为，劳动力成本占高科技产品总成本的比重很小，使用美国工人会让每部iPhone的
成本增加65美元。苹果手机产品的利润通常是每台数百美元，所以从理论上说，本地生
产依然会让公司保持足够的盈利。
但是这样的计算其实没有太大的意义，因为在美国生产iPhone的问题远不止雇用美国人
，而是涉及到整个国家和全球的经济模式。苹果的高管认为，美国根本没有足够的具备
必要技能的公司，和运作既高效又灵活的工厂。其它公司，比如Corning，也说他们必
须放眼海外。
iPhone的玻璃屏幕让Corning在肯塔基的工厂重新焕发活力，到目前为止，它依然在生
产大部分iPhone的玻璃屏幕。自从iPhone成功之后，Corning从其它模仿苹果设计的公
司收到了潮水般的订单。它的强化玻璃销量一年增长了7000多万美元，它已经雇用了
1000多美国人来支持这个新兴的市场需求。
但随着市场越来越大，Corning一大批强化玻璃的生产已经转移到了日本和台湾。
Corning的副董事长和首席财务官James B. Flaws说：“我们的客户遍布台湾、韩国、
日本和中国。我们可以在美国生产玻璃，海运到这些国家，但是路途需要35天。我们也
可以使用空运，但运费是海运的10倍。所以我们干脆把玻璃工厂建在组装车间的隔壁，
也就是在美国之外。”
161年前，Corning在美国成立，它的总部依然位于纽约郊区。理论上说，公司可以在本
地生产所有玻璃制品，但是Flaws先生说：“这需要重新整合行业结构。消费类电子产
品已经变成了亚洲的生意，作为一个美国人，我深感忧虑，但又无计可施。亚洲就是40
年前的美国。”
中产阶级工作岗位的流失
当Eric Saragoza第一次走进苹果位于加利福尼亚Elk Grove的生产车间时，他觉得似乎
进入了一个技术行业的仙境。
那是在1995年，这家临近萨格拉门托的工厂有1500名工人，车间里如万花筒般的机械手
臂上下挥舞，传送带上的零部件在各项组装程序之后，最终变成各种颜色的iMac。作为
工程师的Saragoza在工厂中的职位扶摇直上，后来成为核心质检团队成员之一，薪水达
到5万美元。他和妻子有三个孩子，他们买了一座带游泳池的房子。
他说：“我觉得，自己所付出的教育成本终于有所回报，我知道这个世界需要能做出一
些东西来的人。”
然而，电子行业发生了变化，苹果的产品不再受欢迎，公司在努力转型，其中一项重要
内容是改进产品的生产过程。Saragoza先生工作了仅仅几年之后，他的老板就向他们描
述了加利福尼亚的工厂是如何与海外工厂竞争的：Elk Grove生产一台价值1500美元的
电脑成本（除去原材料成本）是22美元；在新加坡，成本是6美元；在台湾，只有4.85
美元。如此悬殊差距的最重要原因并不是工资标准，而是库存成本和生产效率。
Saragoza说：“我们被要求每天工作12个小时，星期六也要上班。可我有家庭，我想去
看孩子们踢足球。”
现代化进程总会让一些工作发生变化或者消失。当美国经济从农业向工业和其它产业转
化时，农民变成了钢厂工人，后来还变成了促销员和中层管理人员。这些变化带来了巨
大的经济收益，从总体上看，每次技术进步都会让不具备太多劳动技能的工人的待遇提
高，并且有更多发展的机会。
但是在过去二十年里，一些基本因素发生了变化，中等收入的就业岗位逐渐消失了，尤
其是适合美国未受大学教育人群的工作。当今社会的新就业机会不成比例地出现在服务
领域，比如餐厅、呼叫中心、医院护理员、临时工，能达到中等收入水平的工作机会越
来越少。
即使持有大学学历的Saragoza先生也难逃这种命运。首先，Elk Grove工厂的例行工作
转移到海外，Saragoza对此并不在意。接着，那些让苹果工厂看起来像一个未来竞技场
的机器人技术，让高层可以用机器替代工人。一些质检工程工作转移到了新加坡。管理
工厂库存的中层经理纷纷下岗，因为似乎几个有网络的人就能搞定这些事情。
任职于一个非技术岗位，Saragoza先生显然过于昂贵了，而他又不够资历晋升到高级管
理层。于是在2002年的一次夜班之后，他被叫入一个小房间，被告知要离开公司，然后
有人带着他离开了工厂。他在学校中做了一段时间老师，后来尝试回到科技行业。但是
曾经让这里成为神圣的“北硅谷”的苹果公司，已经把大部分Elk Grove工厂改建为呼
叫中心，那里的新员工时薪只有12美元。
硅谷中的公司的确也在招人，但都不适合他。Saragoza先生说：“他们想要的都是30来
岁、没有子女的员工。”他今年已经48岁，家里共有5口人。
几个月之后，他开始感到绝望了，即使教师的工作机会也越来越少。最后，他应聘到一
家电子中介公司做临时工，这家公司与苹果合作检查返修的iPhone和iPad，再发回给客
户。Saragoza先生每天驾车到他曾经作为一名工程师所工作过的办公楼，擦拭数千块玻
璃屏幕，插入耳机测试声音，为的是每小时能挣10美元，没有任何其它福利。
苹果的发薪日
随着苹果海外运作的扩展和销量上升，其顶级员工的收入水涨船高。上一个财年，苹果
的收入达到1080亿美元，比密歇根、新泽西和马萨诸塞州的政府预算总和还高。自从
2005年公司拆股之后，苹果的股价从45美元上升到427美元。
部分财富落入了股东的口袋，苹果的股票持有人相当分散，股价的上升让数百万个人投
资者和养老金计划受益。苹果员工的奖金也相当慷慨，除了工资，他们在上一个财年总
共得到了价值20亿美元的股票，行使认股权和既定认股权总价值超过14亿美元。
当然，最大的一块蛋糕还是留给苹果的顶级员工。首席执行官库克去年手中持有的股票
——最长期限为10年——按目前市值来计算，价值4.27亿美元，他的薪水达到140万美
元。据苹果透露的内部资料，在2010年，库克的各项待遇总和价值590万美元。
内部知情人士说，苹果员工的高薪是理所当然的，因为这家公司给美国和全世界带来了
极具价值的产品。公司发展的同时，其本土员工数量也在不断增加，包括生产型就业岗
位。去年，苹果的美国员工数量增长到8000人。
当其它公司纷纷把呼叫中心设在海外时，苹果的这个部门依然保留在美国。有数据显示
，苹果产品的销售导致其它公司多聘请了数千名美国人，例如，联邦快递和联合包裹公
司都表示由于苹果货量的增加，他们在美国的员工人数也有所增加。但没有得到苹果允
许的情况下，他们都不能透露具体的数字。
苹果一位高管说：“我们不应当因为使用中国工人而遭到批评，美国的确没有我们需要
的技术人员。”
而且，苹果说他们在零售店和出售iPhone和iPad应用程序的企业中，提供了许多非常好
的工作岗位。
在那家中介机构工作了两个月之后，Saragoza先生辞职了。那里的薪水太低，他认为还
不如花这些时间来寻找更好的工作。十月份的一个晚上，当Saragoza先生用他的
MacBook在网上发简历时，地球另一边的一个女人来到自己的办公室。她叫林丽娜，是
PCH在中国深圳分公司的项目经理，这家公司与苹果和其它电子公司合作生产设备的附
件，比如iPad的屏幕保护壳。林女士并不是苹果的雇员，但她是苹果推出产品过程中不
可或缺的环节。
PCH的项目经理林丽娜是苹果在中国的外包商，她说：“这里有很多工作机会，尤其是
在深圳。”
林女士的收入比Saragoza先生在苹果的薪资少一些，她在电视和中国的大学里学到一口
流利的英语。她和她的丈夫每个月把家庭收入的四分之一存在银行里。他们和儿子、公
婆住在一个1080平房英尺的公寓中林女士说：“这里有很多工作机会，尤其是在深圳。”
创新下的失败者
奥巴马与乔布斯和其他硅谷高管的晚宴临近结束时，人们起身离开餐厅。一群人围住奥
巴马要求合影，围在乔布斯身边的人稍微少一点。有谣言说他的身体状况已经恶化，人
们觉得或者这是最后一次与他合影。
这两堆人群后来慢慢地靠拢。乔布斯对奥巴马说：“我不担心国家的未来，因为这是个
非常伟大的国家。我担心的是我们没有足够的机会讨论目前问题的解决方法。”
在宴会期间，高官们建议政府改革签证制度，让公司可以聘请到外国工程师。有些人敦
促总统给予“免税期”，这样他们可以把海外利润带回国内，用来创造就业机会。乔布
斯甚至建议，苹果或许在未来可以把一些技术生产型工作放在美国，如果政府帮助培训
一批美国工程师的话。
经济学家们也在争论这些方法的效果和可行性，他们提出，经济衰退通常是由无法预料
的发展造成的。上一次分析人士们对美国长期高失业率束手无措还是在80年代初，互联
网还没有出现。那时，根本不会有人猜到图形设计专业的学位会吃香，而学习修理电话
注定没有出路。
然而，我们不知道美国是否有能力把明日的革新转化成无数的就业岗位。
过去十年里，太阳能、风力、半导体制造和显示技术飞速发展，也产生了大量的就业岗
位。但是虽然很多产业都源自美国，可是雇员都在海外，公司纷纷关闭美国的工厂，在
中国重新开张。公司的管理层众口一词地说这是为了与苹果争夺股东，如果他们赶不上
苹果的增长速度和利润率，他们就无法生存。
哈佛大学经济学家Lawrence Katz说：“新兴的中产阶级就业岗位终究会出现，但是40
多岁的人有足够的技能来胜任吗？这些人是不是会被大学毕业生取代，永远无法回到中
产阶级呢？”
很多公司的高管都认为，科技创新的速度被乔布斯这样人加快了许多。通用汽车改进一
款汽车的设计需要5年时间，而苹果在4年里推出5款iPhone，新设备的速度和内存增加
了一倍，价格还有所下降。
在奥巴马和乔布斯互道再见之前，乔布斯从口袋中掏出一部iPhone，向总统展示了一个
新的应用程序——一款驾驶游戏，其界面展示了令人难以置信的细节。其他那些身家加
起来超过690亿美元的高管纷纷凑过来，挤在乔布斯身后看他手里的iPhone。所有人都
认为，这款游戏太炫了。（译者 满仓）
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 21 January 2012
People flooded Foxconn Technology with résumés at a 2010 job fair in Henan
Province, China.
When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in
California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for
the president.
But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an
inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today,
few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59
million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can't that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs's reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren't coming back,” he said
, according to another dinner guest.
The president's question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn'
t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple's executives believe
the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence
and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American
counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for
most Apple products.
Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated
companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global
operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more
than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.
However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is
that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as
avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their
heydays.
Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a
small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the
1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many
more people work for Apple's contractors: an additional 700,000 people
engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple's other products. But
almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for
foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost
all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares.
“Apple's an example of why it's so hard to create middle-class jobs in the
U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic
adviser to the White House.
“If it's the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”
Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only
option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese
factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due
on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute,
forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant
near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories,
according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of
tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift
fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was
producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There's
no American plant that can match that.”
Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and
outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including
accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success
of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of
domestic jobs. What's more, the company's decisions pose broader questions
about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national
economies are increasingly intertwined.
“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when
it wasn't the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief
economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That's disappeared
. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”
Companies and other economists say that notion is naïve. Though
Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has
stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need,
executives say.
To thrive, companies argue they need to move work where it can generate
enough profits to keep paying for innovation. Doing otherwise risks losing
even more American jobs over time, as evidenced by the legions of once-proud
domestic manufacturers — including G.M. and others — that have shrunk as
nimble competitors have emerged.
Apple was provided with extensive summaries of The New York Times's
reporting for this article, but the company, which has a reputation for
secrecy, declined to comment.
This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and
former Apple employees and contractors — many of whom requested anonymity
to protect their jobs — as well as economists, manufacturing experts,
international trade specialists, technology analysts, academic researchers,
employees at Apple's suppliers, competitors and corporate partners, and
government officials.
Privately, Apple executives say the world is now such a changed place that
it is a mistake to measure a company's contribution simply by tallying its
employees — though they note that Apple employs more workers in the United
States than ever before.
They say Apple's success has benefited the economy by empowering
entrepreneurs and creating jobs at companies like cellular providers and
businesses shipping Apple products. And, ultimately, they say curing
unemployment is not their job.
“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,” a current Apple executive
said. “We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems. Our only
obligation is making the best product possible.”
‘I Want a Glass Screen’
In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in
stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks
, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.
Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the
dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone
who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.
People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry
their keys in their pocket. “I won't sell a product that gets scratched,”
he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “
I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”
After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China
. If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go.
For over two years, the company had been working on a project — code-named
Purple 2 — that presented the same questions at every turn: how do you
completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest
quality — with an unscratchable screen, for instance — while also ensuring
that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn
a significant profit?
The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States. Though
components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts,
an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad. Advanced
semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and
Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from
Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia. And all of it is put together
in China.
In its early days, Apple usually didn't look beyond its own backyard for
manufacturing solutions. A few years after Apple began building the
Macintosh in 1983, for instance, Mr. Jobs bragged that it was “a machine
that is made in America.” In 1990, while Mr. Jobs was running NeXT, which
was eventually bought by Apple, the executive told a reporter that “I'm as
proud of the factory as I am of the computer.” As late as 2002, top Apple
executives occasionally drove two hours northeast of their headquarters to
visit the company's iMac plant in Elk Grove, Calif.
But by 2004, Apple had largely turned to foreign manufacturing. Guiding that
decision was Apple's operations expert, Timothy D. Cook, who replaced Mr.
Jobs as chief executive last August, six weeks before Mr. Jobs's death. Most
other American electronics companies had already gone abroad, and Apple,
which at the time was struggling, felt it had to grasp every advantage.
A production line in Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China. The iPhone is
assembled in this vast facility, which has 230,000 employees, many at the
plant up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.
In part, Asia was attractive because the semiskilled workers there were
cheaper. But that wasn't driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost
of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing
supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of
companies.
For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one former
high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia “can scale up and down
faster” and “Asian supply chains have surpassed what's in the U.S.” The
result is that “we can't compete at this point,” the executive said.
The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Mr. Jobs demanded
glass screens in 2007.
For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required
precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve.
Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture
large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes
into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant,
hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel
engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.
Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.
When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant's owners were already
constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the
manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government
had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies
had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled
with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made
engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so
employees would be available 24 hours a day.
The Chinese plant got the job.
“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-
ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the
factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away.
You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”
In Foxconn City
An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally
as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn
City was further evidence that China could deliver workers — and diligence
— that outpaced their American counterparts.
That's because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.
The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often
spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn's work
force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day.
When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in
a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said
.
Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not
crushed in doorway bottlenecks. The facility's central kitchen cooks an
average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day. While factories are
spotless, the air inside nearby teahouses is hazy with the smoke and stench
of cigarettes.
Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and
in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world'
s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard,
Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.
“They could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was
Apple's worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss
specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and
convince them to live in dorms?”
In mid-2007, after a month of experimentation, Apple's engineers finally
perfected a method for cutting strengthened glass so it could be used in the
iPhone's screen. The first truckloads of cut glass arrived at Foxconn City
in the dead of night, according to the former Apple executive. That's when
managers woke thousands of workers, who crawled into their uniforms — white
and black shirts for men, red for women — and quickly lined up to assemble
, by hand, the phones. Within three months, Apple had sold one million
iPhones. Since then, Foxconn has assembled over 200 million more.
Foxconn, in statements, declined to speak about specific clients.
“Any worker recruited by our firm is covered by a clear contract outlining
terms and conditions and by Chinese government law that protects their
rights,” the company wrote. Foxconn “takes our responsibility to our
employees very seriously and we work hard to give our more than one million
employees a safe and positive environment.”
The company disputed some details of the former Apple executive's account,
and wrote that a midnight shift, such as the one described, was impossible
“because we have strict regulations regarding the working hours of our
employees based on their designated shifts, and every employee has
computerized timecards that would bar them from working at any facility at a
time outside of their approved shift.” The company said that all shifts
began at either 7 a.m. or 7 p.m., and that employees receive at least 12
hours' notice of any schedule changes.
Foxconn employees, in interviews, have challenged those assertions.
Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a
scale the United States could not match. Apple's executives had estimated
that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the
200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones.
The company's analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to
find that many qualified engineers in the United States.
In China, it took 15 days.
Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is
finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they
need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor's
degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend.
“They're good jobs, but the country doesn't have enough to feed the demand
,” Mr. Schmidt said.
Some aspects of the iPhone are uniquely American. The device's software, for
instance, and its innovative marketing campaigns were largely created in
the United States. Apple recently built a $500 million data center in North
Carolina. Crucial semiconductors inside the iPhone 4 and 4S are manufactured
in an Austin, Tex., factory by Samsung, of South Korea.
But even those facilities are not enormous sources of jobs. Apple's North
Carolina center, for instance, has only 100 full-time employees. The Samsung
plant has an estimated 2,400 workers.
“If you scale up from selling one million phones to 30 million phones, you
don't really need more programmers,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, who oversaw
product development and marketing for Apple until he left in 1990. “All
these new companies — Facebook, Google, Twitter — benefit from this. They
grow, but they don't really need to hire much.”
It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the
United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts
estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing
, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone's expense. Since
Apple's profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building
domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.
But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building
the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans
— it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple
executives believe there simply aren't enough American workers with the
skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility.
Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go
abroad.
Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky,
and today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there. After the
iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other
companies hoping to imitate Apple's designs. Its strengthened glass sales
have grown to more than $700 million a year, and it has hired or continued
employing about 1,000 Americans to support the emerging market.
But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning's strengthened glass
manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan.
“Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,” said James B. Flaws
, Corning's vice chairman and chief financial officer. “We could make the
glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could
ship it by air, but that's 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass
factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.”
Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still
in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its
glass domestically. But it would “require a total overhaul in how the
industry is structured,” Mr. Flaws said. “The consumer electronics
business has become an Asian business. As an American, I worry about that,
but there's nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was
for the last 40 years.”
Middle-Class Jobs Fade
The first time Eric Saragoza stepped into Apple's manufacturing plant in Elk
Grove, Calif., he felt as if he were entering an engineering wonderland.
It was 1995, and the facility near Sacramento employed more than 1,500
workers. It was a kaleidoscope of robotic arms, conveyor belts ferrying
circuit boards and, eventually, candy-colored iMacs in various stages of
assembly. Mr. Saragoza, an engineer, quickly moved up the plant's ranks and
joined an elite diagnostic team. His salary climbed to $50,000. He and his
wife had three children. They bought a home with a pool.
“It felt like, finally, school was paying off,” he said. “I knew the
world needed people who can build things.”
At the same time, however, the electronics industry was changing, and Apple
— with products that were declining in popularity — was struggling to
remake itself. One focus was improving manufacturing. A few years after Mr.
Saragoza started his job, his bosses explained how the California plant
stacked up against overseas factories: the cost, excluding the materials, of
building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove was $22 a machine. In Singapore, it
was $6. In Taiwan, $4.85. Wages weren't the major reason for the
disparities. Rather it was costs like inventory and how long it took workers
to finish a task.
“We were told we would have to do 12-hour days, and come in on Saturdays,”
Mr. Saragoza said. “I had a family. I wanted to see my kids play soccer.”
Modernization has always caused some kinds of jobs to change or disappear.
As the American economy transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and
then to other industries, farmers became steelworkers, and then salesmen and
middle managers. These shifts have carried many economic benefits, and in
general, with each progression, even unskilled workers received better wages
and greater chances at upward mobility.
But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed,
economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among
Americans without college degrees, today's new jobs are disproportionately
in service occupations — at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital
attendants or temporary workers — that offer fewer opportunities for
reaching the middle class.
Even Mr. Saragoza, with his college degree, was vulnerable to these trends.
First, some of Elk Grove's routine tasks were sent overseas. Mr. Saragoza
didn't mind. Then the robotics that made Apple a futuristic playground
allowed executives to replace workers with machines. Some diagnostic
engineering went to Singapore. Middle managers who oversaw the plant's
inventory were laid off because, suddenly, a few people with Internet
connections were all that were needed.
Mr. Saragoza was too expensive for an unskilled position. He was also
insufficiently credentialed for upper management. He was called into a small
office in 2002 after a night shift, laid off and then escorted from the
plant. He taught high school for a while, and then tried a return to
technology. But Apple, which had helped anoint the region as “Silicon
Valley North,” had by then converted much of the Elk Grove plant into an
AppleCare call center, where new employees often earn $12 an hour.
There were employment prospects in Silicon Valley, but none of them panned
out. “What they really want are 30-year-olds without children,” said Mr.
Saragoza, who today is 48, and whose family now includes five of his own.
After a few months of looking for work, he started feeling desperate. Even
teaching jobs had dried up. So he took a position with an electronics temp
agency that had been hired by Apple to check returned iPhones and iPads
before they were sent back to customers. Every day, Mr. Saragoza would drive
to the building where he had once worked as an engineer, and for $10 an
hour with no benefits, wipe thousands of glass screens and test audio ports
by plugging in headphones.
Paydays for Apple
As Apple's overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees
have thrived. Last fiscal year, Apple's revenue topped $108 billion, a sum
larger than the combined state budgets of Michigan, New Jersey and
Massachusetts. Since 2005, when the company's stock split, share prices have
risen from about $45 to more than $427.
Some of that wealth has gone to shareholders. Apple is among the most widely
held stocks, and the rising share price has benefited millions of
individual investors, 401(k)'s and pension plans. The bounty has also
enriched Apple workers. Last fiscal year, in addition to their salaries,
Apple's employees and directors received stock worth $2 billion and
exercised or vested stock and options worth an added $1.4 billion.
The biggest rewards, however, have often gone to Apple's top employees. Mr.
Cook, Apple's chief, last year received stock grants — which vest over a 10
-year period — that, at today's share price, would be worth $427 million,
and his salary was raised to $1.4 million. In 2010, Mr. Cook's compensation
package was valued at $59 million, according to Apple's security filings.
A person close to Apple argued that the compensation received by Apple's
employees was fair, in part because the company had brought so much value to
the nation and world. As the company has grown, it has expanded its
domestic work force, including manufacturing jobs. Last year, Apple's
American work force grew by 8,000 people.
While other companies have sent call centers abroad, Apple has kept its
centers in the United States. One source estimated that sales of Apple's
products have caused other companies to hire tens of thousands of Americans.
FedEx and United Parcel Service, for instance, both say they have created
American jobs because of the volume of Apple's shipments, though neither
would provide specific figures without permission from Apple, which the
company declined to provide.
“We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple
executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we
need.”
What's more, Apple sources say the company has created plenty of good
American jobs inside its retail stores and among entrepreneurs selling
iPhone and iPad applications.
After two months of testing iPads, Mr. Saragoza quit. The pay was so low
that he was better off, he figured, spending those hours applying for other
jobs. On a recent October evening, while Mr. Saragoza sat at his MacBook and
submitted another round of résumés online, halfway around the world a
woman arrived at her office. The worker, Lina Lin, is a project manager in
Shenzhen, China, at PCH International, which contracts with Apple and other
electronics companies to coordinate production of accessories, like the
cases that protect the iPad's glass screens. She is not an Apple employee.
But Mrs. Lin is integral to Apple's ability to deliver its products.
In China, Lina Lin is a project manager at PCH International, which
contracts with Apple. “There are lots of jobs,”she said.“Especially in
Shenzhen.”
Mrs. Lin earns a bit less than what Mr. Saragoza was paid by Apple. She
speaks fluent English, learned from watching television and in a Chinese
university. She and her husband put a quarter of their salaries in the bank
every month. They live in a 1,080-square-foot apartment, which they share
with their in-laws and son.
“There are lots of jobs,” Mrs. Lin said. “Especially in Shenzhen.”
Innovation's Losers
Toward the end of Mr. Obama's dinner last year with Mr. Jobs and other
Silicon Valley executives, as everyone stood to leave, a crowd of photo
seekers formed around the president. A slightly smaller scrum gathered
around Mr. Jobs. Rumors had spread that his illness had worsened, and some
hoped for a photograph with him, perhaps for the last time.
Eventually, the orbits of the men overlapped. “I'm not worried about the
country's long-term future,” Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one
observer. “This country is insanely great. What I'm worried about is that
we don't talk enough about solutions.”
At dinner, for instance, the executives had suggested that the government
should reform visa programs to help companies hire foreign engineers. Some
had urged the president to give companies a “tax holiday” so they could
bring back overseas profits which, they argued, would be used to create work
. Mr. Jobs even suggested it might be possible, someday, to locate some of
Apple's skilled manufacturing in the United States if the government helped
train more American engineers.
Economists debate the usefulness of those and other efforts, and note that a
struggling economy is sometimes transformed by unexpected developments. The
last time analysts wrung their hands about prolonged American unemployment,
for instance, in the early 1980s, the Internet hardly existed. Few at the
time would have guessed that a degree in graphic design was rapidly becoming
a smart bet, while studying telephone repair a dead end.
What remains unknown, however, is whether the United States will be able to
leverage tomorrow's innovations into millions of jobs.
In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy,
semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of
jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the
employment has occurred abroad. Companies have closed major facilities in
the United States to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say
they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple's
growth and profit margins, they won't survive.
“New middle-class jobs will eventually emerge,” said Lawrence Katz, a
Harvard economist. “But will someone in his 40s have the skills for them?
Or will he be bypassed for a new graduate and never find his way back into
the middle class?”
The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has
been quickened by businessmen like Mr. Jobs. G.M. went as long as half a
decade between major automobile redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has
released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices' speed and memory
while dropping the price that some consumers pay.
Before Mr. Obama and Mr. Jobs said goodbye, the Apple executive pulled an
iPhone from his pocket to show off a new application — a driving game —
with incredibly detailed graphics. The device reflected the soft glow of the
room's lights. The other executives, whose combined worth exceeded $69
billion, jostled for position to glance over his shoulder. The game,
everyone agreed, was wonderful.
There wasn't even a tiny scratch on the screen.
David Barboza, Peter Lattman and Catherine Rampell contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 24, 2012
An article on Sunday about the reasons iPhones are largely produced overseas
omitted a passage immediately after the second continuation, from Page A22
to Page A23, in one edition. The full passage should have read: “Another
critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale
the United States could not match. Apple's executives had estimated that
about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,
000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The
company's analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find
that many qualified engineers in the United States.” |
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