With just a few months to go before the rumored iPhone 15 reveal, Apple’s third-party manufacturer is scrambling to find enough workers to staff its lead Chinese factory.
Four out of five iPhone 14s are built in the Zhengzhou plant in central Henan province operated by Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known in the West as Foxconn.
The Taiwanese electronics giant, a veteran partner to Apple, struggled to meet demand last year in the key Christmas season owing to COVID lockdowns and likely cannot afford any fresh delays.
As a result, new employees joining at an hourly wage of 21 yuan ($3) stand to receive bonuses of up to 3,000 yuan ($424) simply for enduring a minimum of 90 days at the company, according to a report in South China Morning Post on Monday.
Existing workers would additionally receive a referral bonus of 500 yuan ($70) should they help with the recruitment drive, the Post added.
The Hong Kong–based daily cited an announcement made on China’s WeChat over the weekend by the Integrated Digital Product Business Group, the Foxconn division responsible for iPhone production.
The Zhengzhou compound is so vast, it earned the nickname “iPhone City,” accommodating up to 300,000 workers who live in on-site dormitories, often sleeping in bunk beds eight to a room. Reportedly some half a million Apple smartphones can be built there daily.
Violent clashes broke out between workers and security forces at Foxconn Zhengzhou, the world’s largest iPhone factory on November 22, 2022. Pic.twitter.com/3HFK9t2rzr
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) November 24, 2022
But its critical importance to Apple turned into a crisis after workers locked in by anti-COVID measures eventually clashed with security forces.
Last November, Apple was forced to release a public statement that Zhengzhou ran at significantly lower output levels than anticipated owing to outbreaks of the virus and saying it was working closely to reduce long wait times.
Subsequently, the California-based company drafted a plan to set up iPhone 15 production in India to diversify its third-party manufacturing base and reduce dependency on Zhengzhou. It is also shifting some production of MacBooks from China to Vietnam.
Foxconn competes with smaller domestic rival Pegatron Corp., China’s Luxshare Precision Industry, and now Tata Group for iPhone assembly volumes after the Indian conglomerate acquired a factory belonging to Taiwan’s Wistron Corp.
In a potential bid to protect his company’s considerable business interests in China, Foxconn founder Terry Gou ran unsuccessfully to fill the Taiwan presidential candidate position on the ticket of Beijing-friendly opposition party KMT.