Taiwanese Foxconn, Apple’s largest partner, has newly hired about 50,000 workers at its Zhengzhou factory in China, local media including China’s First Financial Daily reported on the 8th.
According to the reports, the Zhengzhou factory significantly increased its workforce as it began full-scale production of the iPhone 16. Every year from August to December is considered the peak shipping season for the iPhone series products as well as the peak season for the mobile phone industry. At the end of last month, Foxconn posted recruitment information on major job sites and social networking services (SNS) platforms. At that time, the hourly wage was raised up to 25 yuan (about 4,800 KRW).
Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory, known as the world’s largest production base for the iPhone, offered bonuses of up to 7,500 yuan in addition to the basic hourly wage, which is a significant increase compared to the 6,000 yuan bonus offered a month earlier. Local recruitment agent Chenda emphasized, “Large-scale hiring is ongoing,” adding, “If there is a shortage of manpower for subsequent production, increasing the bonus to 8,000 yuan would not be a problem.”
Earlier, major foreign media including Bloomberg reported that Apple set the shipment target for the iPhone 16, scheduled for release in the second half of this year, at 90 million units, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year. The shipment volume of the iPhone 15 in the second half of last year was about 81 million units.
According to market research firm Counterpoint, Apple, which ranked first in the Chinese smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, saw its sales decline by 19.1% in the first quarter of this year, falling to third place behind local Chinese companies Vivo and Honor.
Previously, there were forecasts that Foxconn would leave China and relocate its manufacturing facilities, but the company denied these claims. On the 24th of last month, major foreign media also reported that Foxconn plans to build a new business headquarters worth about 200 billion KRW in Zhengzhou.
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