What you need to know
- A new report says Apple's manufacturing push into India has created 20,000 jobs.
- Suppliers Foxconn and Wistron alone have hired 7,500 workers each.
- The government states that 200,000 jobs could be created over the next five years.
New figures from India reveal that Apple's manufacturing push in the country has created some 20,000 jobs at suppliers like Foxconn and Wistron.
Apple now makes many of the best iPhones available in India, including its most recent iPhone 12 lineup. According to Financial Express, the push to make more products in India has created some 20,000 jobs in the last seven months alone:
Figures accessed by FE show that the two Apple contract manufacturers have hired 7,500 workers each after August 2020, when the smartphone PLI became operational. It is estimated that the vendors supplying inputs to these two companies, like Sunwoda, Foxlink, Salcomp and others, have also hired approximately 5,000 additional workforce to support the manufacturing of the two contract manufacturer firms. Therefore, the total direct hiring of the workforce by Apple's ecosystem so far is in the range of 20,000 new employees.
Backed by generous government incentives, Apple has onshored much of its manufacturing operation to India over the last year, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic which highlighted a glaring need to diversify its supply chain. As the report notes, Apple's third major manufacturer Pegatron hasn't started operations in India yet, and its entrance into the fray will create a further 6-7,000 jobs.
The Indian government has previously stated that they expect its PLI scheme to create some 200,000 jobs over the next five years.
The move hasn't been without its setbacks, however. A huge hiring operation at Wistron's Karnataka plant saw the company's HR infrastructure overwhelmed by the influx of new employees. Eventually, a backlog of unpaid wages led to a riot breaking out at the factory in December, and the supplier was placed on probation by Apple. Work only resumed at the plant in March.
