Study Shows Apps Have Created 466,000 U.S. Jobs in Four Years

[Akshay Masand]

A report recently released by TechNet claims that the so-called “App Economy” seems to have grown beyond Apple’s App Store to become an entity of its own - one that has seen steady growth over the past four years.

The folks over at TechNet worked with consulting firm South Mountain Economics LLC to quantify the size and impact of the App Economy by researching keywords in help-wanted ads, want-ad to employment ratio, tech employment to total employment, and job multipliers. The study ended up revealing that that the fast-growing industry is responsible for roughly 466,000 jobs in the United States. This includes employment stats from “pure” app companies like Zynga as well as app-related positions for major software developers such as AT&T and Electronic Arts.

It should be noted that the study included statistics from all major mobile operating systems including Android, BlackBerry, Facebook, iOS, and various iterations of what is now the Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. “The App Economy, along with the broad communications sector, has been a leading source of hiring strength in an otherwise sluggish labor market” according to Dr. Michael Mandel, President of South Mountain Economics and former Chief Economist for BusinessWeek.



California tops the list of states with the highest percentage of App Economy jobs recording that nearly one in every four sector positions are going to the new industry. New York and Washington follow with 6.9% and 6.4% respectively. Furthermore, growth for app business employment saw a relative slowdown in growth during 2011, though the average number of tech want ads containing the word “app” was 45% higher than the year before.

With Apple having paid developers over $4 billion since the launch of the App Store and with over 315 million iOS devices sold has helped software engineers make $700,000 during the last quarter alone. In a time where many complain about jobs and job security, it’s nice to see a growing industry emerge.

Source: TechNet

[Cheesey123]

Nice to hear that there is some growth in the economy and hopefully in time all sectors will be revived,just a pity that with the growth of the app development that most aren't worth having,by that I mean looking in the app store it's becoming a mish mash of badly done poorly thought out and some really terrible apps,and in some cases the released apps either dont fully work or are full of bugs,IMO it's like there is to much of a rush to release an app unfinished make money on it and fix it as they go using the buyer as a beta tester.just my opinion.

[punjabi212]

$4billion / 466,000 = $8,600 (around there)

Am I missing something?

[Cheesey123]

$4billion / 466,000 = $8,600 (around there)

Am I missing something?

Yes you are $4billion was paid JUST to apple app developers,the number 466,000 is the total number of app developer across different OS's which include RIM ANDROID and APPLE,so you can't divide $4billion into 466,000 hope that help clear it up a little.

[punjabi212]

Yes you are $4billion was paid JUST to apple app developers,the number 466,000 is the total number of app developer across different OS's which include RIM ANDROID and APPLE,so you can't divide $4billion into 466,000 hope that help clear it up a little.

Oh you're right. I read it really quickly while going to work.

[GmAz]

Wonder how many of those "job postings" were one time payments to throw together an app just to try to attract stupid hipsters.