Apple iPhone 5 Success Causes Worker Shortage at Foxconn

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

If there is anything Foxconn currently does not need, it is more tension among its workers.

However, a report suggests that the success of the iPhone 5, as well as an increase in orders from 8 to 10 million units in September to 14 to 16 million units in October will put Foxconn's employees under additional pressure. Apple said that it sold more than 5 million iPhone during its first weekend of the latest model's availability.

According to Digitimes, Foxconn currently employs more than 150,000 workers to assemble Apple's latest smartphone in Zhengzhou, China. To assist Foxconn recruit workers, the local government of Zhengzhou "is also offering employment subsidies", the report stated.

Following a string of suicides last year, Foxconn recently made headlines due to riots at the Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province, which employs about 79,000 people. While Foxconn said that the riots, which have resulted in ten reported deaths so far, were not work related, the additional workload surely does help calm the mood. The riots at Taiyuan involved more than 2,000 workers.

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Wolfgang Gruener
34 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Send all the unassembled iPhones to the customer. Build your own phone :D
    Reply
  • SoiledBottom
    Foxconn - We need more nets
    Reply
  • SoiledBottom
    One more

    The new improved Foxconn...... now with 50% more nets
    Reply
  • SoiledBottom
    Last one ...promise

    How many suicides does it take to assemble an IPhone ?....with suicide nets or without ?

    Yeah I'm going to hell
    Reply
  • migaltec
    what matter are the result
    Reply
  • memadmax
    Wouldn't have this crap if you had the factory in the US.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    They should be making enough profit to offer the employees more $$$$. Foxconn...you greedy b@$t@rd$.
    Reply
  • alexmx
    memadmaxWouldn't have this crap if you had the factory in the US.
    LOL, I guess that the price would skyrocket up to 1k usd for the cheaper one.
    Reply
  • santiagoanders
    "the additional workload surely does help calm the mood"

    You accidentally a word.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    ALEXMXLOL, I guess that the price would skyrocket up to 1k usd for the cheaper one.Oh...that doesn't matter, I'm sure all the overwhelmingly too-rich-to-exist Americans wouldn't mind paying $1K+ for their iPhones...nope, we'd not mind that one bit. Isn't that right?
    Reply