Apple’s retail operation increased two-fold during the existing year (2008).

According to Apple’s recent 10-k annual filing released Wednesday, the company presently has 32,000 people on a full-time basis. The figure was up from 21,600 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The report also said that around 16,000 of those people work in company’s retail group, which currently has 247 stores.

Apple, in last year's annual report, announced that it had around 8,000 people working in the retail unit, which comprised 197 stores.

During the recent fiscal 2008, or the period ended in September, the retail group accounted for $6.3 billion of the $32.4 billion in net sales Apple showed for the year.

In other HR-related news, Apple revealed that it will pay outgoing iPod executive Tony Fadell $300,000 in annual salary in his new role as a ‘special adviser.’

Moreover, the company also said that Tony will also get 77,500 units of restricted stock, which vest in March 2010 in exchange for 155,000 restricted stock units that had yet to vest.