Foxconn has ramped up hiring on assembly lines in China and doubled bonuses for new hires if they worked at least 55 days in a period longer than 90 days. Specifically, the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, Henan, central China decided to double the bonus for workers to 6.000 yuan ($940) from 3.500 yuan per person at the end of May.
Besides, some of Foxconn’s other factories in China even offer an extra 10.000 yuan if new hires agree to work for at least 150 days. With such a preferential salary regime, the labor shortage in these enterprises is becoming more and more serious, so they have to regularly recruit from the beginning of the year until now.
Luffy Lin, an analyst with Witdisplay – an electronics industry consulting platform, said that in the past, some of Apple’s orders, such as the iPhone 12, were made in India. However, the pandemic raging has disrupted supply chains and manufacturing activities. Therefore, most of Apple’s new orders will be handled by Foxconn factories in China, and to ensure enough supply when products are released, Foxconn must focus on promoting recruitment.
Meanwhile, Apple’s trend of moving production to China can last up to 6 months, even 1 year. However, with the current high labor costs, the world’s second-largest economy is not a long-term choice of suppliers for Apple. Countries like India will still be a much more attractive source of supply if they can get the Covid-19 pandemic under control and implement mass vaccination.
Phan Quyen