UPDATE
September 2, 2020
App Store ecosystem now supports over 2.1 million jobs across all 50 states
That growth has been experienced by companies large and small, including the team at Caribu in Miami, Florida. Caribu is an app that enables immersive, activity-rich video calls, allowing families and friends to stay close even from afar. Participants can draw together, read bedtime stories, solve puzzles, cook, and even visit museums in real time — connections that have become even more important in recent months. Caribu co-founders Maxeme Tuchman and Alvaro Sabido saw their business take off this spring, as people sought new ways to keep in touch. To respond to the tenfold increase in customers across the globe, Caribu’s team tripled in size, from 4 employees to 12, contributing to the 17,000 new app economy jobs in Florida.
In Texas, the app economy added 36,000 new jobs in the past year, an increase of nearly 30 percent. Contributing to that growth is H‑E‑B, a Texas-based retailer founded in 1905, which now operates 350 stores throughout the state and has added jobs to a staff of nearly 110,000. In the months before the pandemic, it launched the My H‑E‑B mobile app, which makes curbside pickup and home delivery of groceries and other essential items easy and streamlined. Since then, the app’s number of monthly active users increased an astonishing 1,050 percent and achieved its 2021 revenue goals in a matter of months. In response, H‑E‑B expanded its digital team by more than 150, and the team has recently added enhanced features like no-touch digital coupons, self checkout, in-app donations, and SNAP payment integration.
- Maryland added 25,000 new app economy jobs since last year.
- Michigan added 12,000 new app economy jobs, growing 34 percent since last year.
- Many smaller states, including Alabama, Nevada, and Oklahoma, saw double-digit increases in app economy jobs during the same time period.
As the app economy continues to grow, Apple is investing in educational programs and opportunities that help prepare learners of all ages for the app economy jobs of the future. With Swift Playgrounds, Everyone Can Code, and App Development with Swift, Apple gives anyone interested in learning to code the tools and guidance to get there. Today more than 9,000 K-12 and higher education institutions worldwide are using Apple’s coding curricula, including over 100 community colleges across the US. And Apple coding academies, accelerators, and Entrepreneur Camps give up-and-coming developers the opportunity to apply the latest technologies to their apps, build their businesses, and market their ideas to a global audience.
Images of iOS App Economy
- Job creation estimate based on research by Dr. Michael Mandel, Progressive Policy Institute, August 2020.