Facebook Apps Create 182,000 New U.S. Jobs Worth $12.9 Billion
The U.S. jobs market may be bleak but such is not true for the App Economy. A research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business said that the proliferation of Facebook and mobile technology apps has given birth to a new industry and has added at least 182,000 new jobs. It was estimated to have contributed more than $12.19 billion in wages and benefits.
With more aggressive estimates, the Facebook App Economy alone created a total of 235,644 jobs and adding a value of $15.71 billion to the US economy.
Il-Horn Hann and Siva Viswanathan, co-directors of the Smith School of Business, measured the number of people employed to build, develop and consult on Facebook applications using data provided by the social network.
Il-Horn Hann, director of Smith’s School of Business, said:
“Our findings confirm that social media platforms have created a thriving new industry. As Facebook and other platforms grow, we will continue to see job growth and the ripple effects of these advances in the U.S. economy.”
The App Economy also led to job creation at businesses that supply app developers, and in sectors that reap the benefits of increased household spending by app developers and suppliers from new app economy jobs.
Given this, maybe we should just start thinking on how to convert the entire U.S. economy into a Facebook app. This is a joke obviously but maybe we’ll recover.
