In a weekend profile of Apple's campus in Austin, Tex., the company claimed that it has created over 2 million jobs in the U.S. since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007.
That number includes "explosive growth in iOS developers, thousands of new supplier and manufacturing partners, and a 400 percent increase in our employee teams," Apple said in a statement to the New York Times. Its own workforce includes about 80,000 people.
The company added that it "made the unique decision to keep and expand our contact centers for customers in the Americas in the United States," and plans to "continue to invest and grow across the U.S."
Much of the company's tech support staff is based at its Austin campus, which in the last seven years has grown from holding 2,100 workers to about 6,000, aided by a recent major expansion. The facility also handles supplier operations, finances, Maps development, and various iTunes and App Store tasks.
While the average pay for an Apple call center worker is just $30,000 per year, people who graduate to permanent status can take home $45,000 plus benefits and annual stock grants. Overall the average salary at the Austin campus -- including management staff, but excluding benefits and stocks -- is $77,000 per year.
A perk of working at the campus is that workers are encouraged to try out other positions, which can potentially lead to dramatic career shifts. Apple is working on formalizing the program, allowing people to test different jobs in six-month stints.