Foxconn began recruiting employees for its plant in Zhengzhou, China, known as the iPhone assembly plant.
This Foxconn step is somewhat unusual, as it is done a few weeks earlier than usual. What's more, it's currently an off-season for recruiting new employees, and Foxconn usually recruits new employees in mid-June-July.
To attract this prospective employee, Foxconn is offering a bigger bonus, reaching 30%, we were quoted as saying by Apple Insider, Thursday (5/5/2022).
Allegedly, Foxconn's move is not related to the production of the iPhone 14. But simply to maintain the number of employees during an unclear period such as today. The unclear period in question was the obligation of swab tests in mid-April to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in China.
It is feared that if it is too late to recruit, the employees will not be able to come to the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou if there is a lockdown in Henan province, the province where Zhengzhou is located.
In late April, Foxconn said there were 200,000 employees working in Zhengzhou, a city better known as the "iPhone City". They also claim that their production so far has not been affected by COVID.
In fact, in mid-April, the city of Shanghai, China again applied the lockdown of the COVID-19 case surge. IPhone production in the city was also affected and as a result, the iPhone stock is predicted to be reduced to millions of units.
Pegatron, one of Apple's partners in assembling the iPhone, said it would temporarily halt production at its plants in Shanghai and Kunshan. These two factories are believed to be home to the production of the iPhone 13, iPhone SE, and several other older iPhone series.