Apple plans to add 2,000 jobs in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) – Apple officials say the company plans to add 2,000 software and hardware jobs in Seattle in the next five years, with 200 jobs by the end of this year.

The Seattle Times reports officials made the announcement at a news conference Monday with Mayor Jenny Durken.

Apple is leasing space in two 12-story buildings nearing completion one block from the core Amazon campus in the city’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

Apple last year announced plans to employ more than 1,000 Seattle workers by 2022. Currently it employs 500 people in the city in its retail stores and its office downtown where machine-learning technology is the focus.

Apple bought Seattle startup Union Bay Networks, a cloud-networking company, in 2014. Two years later it acquired another Seattle startup, Turi, that focused on machine learning.