Apple supplier Foxconn’s hiring frenzy has come to a brief pause in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, where it has two plants, after a few COVID-19 cases were reported.
A recruitment manager at Foxconn’s plant in Shenzhen told the Global Times on Wednesday that all hiring activities were put on hold starting on Wednesday due to epidemic control measures in the city, a hub of the global supply chain of electronic goods.
“We expect hiring to be resumed starting next Monday,” the manager said, adding that “it is the recruitment season and workers are hard to find. Each pair of hands is urgently needed to manufacture electronic devices, including the iPhone.”
Foxconn’s mass recruitment comes two months ahead of Apple’s fall launch events, which generally take place every year in September when the US tech firm launches its latest devices, including its next high-end iPhone series. Large-scale delivery of iPhones usually comes at the end of the year.
Shenzhen reported one new locally transmitted case and two locally transmitted asymptomatic infections of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the city’s municipal health commission announced on Wednesday.
However, according to reports obtained by the Global Times on Wednesday, the recruitment activities were authorized from Thursday, although job applicants have to take three nucleic acid tests on three consecutive days before the job interview. Additional three tests must be conducted before they can join the assembly line work force as Foxconn intensifies the screening process for the virus.
Logo of Foxconn File Photo: VCG
