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Made in the USA: Apple Mac production to be shifted from China [VIDEO]

Jessica Stanton Contributor
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On Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that a portion of the company’s Mac computers will soon boast “Made in the USA” stickers.

The company plans to spend $100 million to produce an undisclosed Mac line in the U.S. beginning next year.

“We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” Cook told NBC’s Brian Williams.

Apple has not made its computers in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, instead opting to take advantage of China’s lower labor costs.

“When you back up and look at Apple’s effect on job creation in the United States, we estimate that we’ve created more than 600,000 jobs now,” Cook said. “I don’t think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job. But I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs.”

Cook defended the company’s decision to only move a portion of Apple production to the U.S., blaming the education system for failing to teach Americans the skills necessary to be proficient in modern manufacturing processes.

“The consumer electronics world was really never here,” he said. “It’s a matter of starting it here.”

Cook noted that the iPhone and iPad already contain parts made in the U.S., and he credited the company with creating jobs in the mobile-software industry developing applications for Apple products. Some of the latest iMacs even included a sticker saying the products were “Assembled in America.”

Three other major companies have also recently announced they will shift some production back to America from overseas: Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and Google.

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