It is the countrywide move since the 2009 downturn, prompted by the financial crisis. Liu Kun, a company spokesman at Foxconn’s manufacturing facility, in said none of its plants in mainland China have hiring plans. There had been internal notices issued to halt hiring until at least the end of March.
However Tim Cook, chief executive is still insisting that demand for iPhones had not peaked as people had realised that there was much better technology out there cheaper. He said that Apple did not have the word ‘limit’ in its vocabulary. Although since he used the word it must be in his vocab, as it certainly is in the vocabulary of analysts commenting on Jobs’ Mob now. Now it seems that Foxconn’s demand for workers this year was as low as that in the very depressed 2009 period.
The company’s China workforce was estimated at about 800,000 during the 2009 crisis, but rose to 1.2m last year ahead of the launch of the iPhone 5. Recruiters said hiring has stopped for the iPhone and iPad production lines in Shenzhen, the company’s largest plant with more than 200,000 workers, as well as at Zhengzhou, the second-largest with about 200,000 workers, which also makes iPhones. Taiyuan, which had 79,000 workers as of September and makes iPhone parts, and Chengdu, which makes the iPad, were also putting a freeze on hiring.
We don’t need trampoline artists for now
After being so short-staffed that it had to empty classrooms for “work experience,” Foxconn now says it has too many staff. The reason is that Apple products are not selling very well and Jobs’ Mob as cut back on its orders particularly on its dull iPhone5.
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Nick Farrell
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