Apple iPhone assemblers, expecting huge increases in production, hike recruiting bonuses for workers

Two of Apple's contract manufacturers that will be soon assembling iPhone 13 models on their respective assembly lines, are looking to recruit more workers to help build the handsets. As a result, both Foxconn and Pegatron are looking to recruit new employees to work specifically with iPhone 13 production. Yesterday we told you that research firm Trend Force forecasts that Apple will produce 223 million iPhone units this year, up 12.3% from last year.

Approximately 40% of that total, or 89.2 million units, are expected to be iPhone 13 models. Securities firm Wedbush predicts a 20% hike in iPhone 13 pre-launch builds this year to 100 million handsets. According to Taiwan's Economic Daily (via 9to5Mac) both Foxconn and Pegatron are paying a bonus of more than a month's average salary if recruits sent to the factories end up with jobs on the iPhone 13 series assembly lines.

For the upcoming "peak" manufacturing period, Pegatron's iPhone manufacturing hub increased its recruitment bonus and the "rebate" was hiked from RMB 5,500 ($850 USD) to RMB 8500 ($1,312 USD). The 54% increase is supposed to help the manufacturer meet the demand for additional workers on the iPhone 13 lines from manpower companies that match those seeking work with companies seeking workers.

Pegatron also increased the bonuses it pays for new workers hired off of a recommendation from a current Pegatron employee or someone who was recruited and hired by the company itself. Under those scenarios, the employee referral bonus is RMB 1,800 ($278), and the direct recruitment bonus is RMB 2,500 ($386 USD). For those recruited to work at Foxconn's Zhengzhou Plant, the internal recommendation bonus is RMB 6,000 ($926 USD) with a 5,400 RMB ($833 USD) resignation bonus.

The Foxconn bonus numbers are much higher than what the assembler offered last month. And a resignation bonus, for those who were wondering, is how much a company will pay a worker to leave the firm in order to reduce a bloated head count, for example.

Besides needing more workers to cope with the expected hike in iPhone 13 demand, COVID has decimated some of those working on the line in Taiwan and India. For example, last month iPhone production was halved at a Foxconn factory in India after 100 employees came down with the virus.

Last year it was reported that assembly line workers putting in six day work weeks could make RMB 5,000 to 6,000 ($772 USD to $926 USD) each week.