In March 2019, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer took a mayorial moment when he announced 1,200 new Apple ($AAPL) jobs coming to his county. The announcement came after Apple revealed plans to open a tech hub in San Diego, promising at least 1,000 jobs in the area.
Job listing data reveals that the Apple San Diego hiring spree has indeed begun, with job listings in the area up by a factor of three since the announcements.
In January 2019, Apple listed just 24 openings in San Diego on its careers website. As of this week, it lists 75 openings. While that's a small fraction of the roughly 4,700 openings Apple has worldwide, proportial job growth in San Diego far outpaces that of the company overall, suggesting a true focus on the area as a future tech hub.
Apple has been on a hiring run since May, adding almost 1,000 job listings since then. Much of the company's hiring efforts have been focused on launching new products, including the much-ballyhooed Apple TV Plus streaming service. The majority of hires for that service have been in Los Angeles and at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, however.
That said, for US locations, San Diego now comes in third for the quarter for where Apple is hiring, behind only its headquarters in Cupertino and its growing campus in Austin.
As suggested by Mayor Faulconer's and Apple's original announcements, the San Diego Apple jobs are virtually all for engineers, RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit) Engineers most in demand.
|
Title |
Daily Listings (Cumulative) |
|---|---|
|
RFIC Design Engineer |
635 |
|
RFIC Layout Engineer |
347 |
|
RTL Design Engineer |
243 |
|
Design Verification Engineer - Media and Neural Engines |
221 |
|
PHY Systems & Algorithm Engineer |
221 |
|
Design Verification Engineer |
221 |
|
SOC Verification Engineer |
221 |
|
Wireless Design Verification Engineer |
221 |
|
Wireless Low Power RTL Design Engineer |
221 |
|
Wireless SOC Design Engineer |
221 |
The new hardware-focused office in San DIego and subsequent job listings are a reminder that Apple is still largely a hardware company, despite its recent focus on software and media. San Diego is a wellspring of engineering talent, too, so this move makes a lot of sense for Apple.
Said Apple CEO Tim Cook of San Diego:
“Apple has been a part of San Diego for nearly 20 years through our retail presence and small, fast-growing teams – and with this new investment we are proud to play an even greater part in the city’s future. You don’t have to try too hard to convince people that San Diego is a great place to live, work and do business, and we’re confident our employees will have a great home among the community there.”
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
- For the first time in years, Apple is hiring more software people than hardware people
- Apple launches hiring spree for its upcoming Culver City TV and movie production facility
- Apple hiring in Austin since August jumped 76%