Apple Aims to Increase Its Silicon Valley Workforce By Nearly 50 Percent The tech giant says it expects to hire 7,400 additional employees to work in its new headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

Apple has big plans for its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Not only is the tech giant planning to construct a new 3.4 million-square-foot office campus there, it says it expects to hire 7,400 additional employees by 2016, when the new campus is expected to be completed. That's an increase of nearly 50 percent over the 16,000 full-time Apple employees who currently work in Cupertino.

The details of Apple's plan were outlined in a report prepared by real estate advisory firm Keyser Marston Associates and submitted to the city of Cupertino yesterday to win approval for construction. In addition to creating new jobs, Apple said the new office campus can help increase revenues of local businesses and enhance tax revenues in Cupertino.

Apple did not describe the types of jobs it plans to fill with the new recruits, other than to call them "high quality."

Apple's current headquarters -- called the Infinite Loop -- is an 856,000-square-foot facility that houses approximately 3,000 employees. Apple says the other 13,000 employees work at various locations around Cupertino that the company either leases or has purchased. In all, Apple employs about 73,000 people worldwide.

While the report did not divulge details about new products Apple may be developing -- such as a smart watch, for instance -- Apple did note that it has experienced an average annual revenue growth rate of more than 35 percent, with net sales skyrocketing from $24.6 billion in 2006 to $156.6 billion last year.

Apple has been planning to construct a state-of-the-art headquarters since 2011. Plans call for a spaceship-like structure that houses a restaurant, a 100,000-square-foot fitness center and a 1,000-seat corporate auditorium, among other amenities.

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