Foxconn to Hire Up to 400,000 Workers in 2011, Increasing Employment by 50%

Just some staggering numbers as representative of the global shift in jobs; keep in mind Foxconn already employed 800,000.  [Aug 6, 2010: Comparing Job Losses in Post WW2 Recessions]  Obviously population in the 2 countries are different, but even at current levels (800K) Foxconn would be the 2nd largest private employer in America behind Walmart.  To put in perspective another way, the U.S. postal service (which cannot be outsourced) was the nation's second largest employer at about 600,000 workers - after some job cuts the past few years.

• Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide and mainly manufactures on contract to other companies. Among other things, Foxconn produces the Mac mini, the iPod, theiPad, and the iPhone for Apple Inc.; Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer manufacturers Dell andHewlett-Packard; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo; the Xbox 360 for Microsoft; cellular phones for Motorolaand Nokia; the Amazon Kindle; and Cisco equipment.

Thankfully, we don't need that type of work in the U.S. (source: political dogma) since the new paradigm service economy intertwined with bubbles every 4-6 years solves our ills.


Via Bloomberg:

• Foxconn Technology Group plans to hire as many as 400,000 workers in China in the coming year and will build factories closer to employees’ homes after a spate of suicides at the maker of Apple Inc. iPhones and Dell Inc. computers.
  
• The Taiwanese company aims to boost its China workforce to 1.2 million to 1.3 million people after revenue jumped 50 percent in the first half, Louis Woo, special assistant to the chief executive officer, said in an interview today. Foxconn will expand to inland provinces Henan and Sichuan because that’s “what the new generation of workers wants,” he said.
  
• Foxconn’s hiring plan is equivalent to more than three times the combined workforces of Microsoft Corp. and Apple.  The company is shifting away from Shenzhen, the southern coastal city that’s a magnet for migrant workers, after the suicides of at least 12 workers this year prompted it to install safety nets to prevent employees jumping to their deaths.  The deaths prompted the company to hire monks and counselors to help employees, while it doubled the base wage for workers in Shenzhen.
  
• Around half the company’s 900,000 workers are in Shenzhen, and that ratio will drop to one-third, Woo said.  The Shenzhen facilities will focus more on research and development, product testing and new-energy technologies, Woo said. Around 20 percent of its China workforce is from Henan in eastern China, he said.
  
• “They will need more workers for their notebook business, while Apple also has very aggressive targets for their iPhones,” saidVincent Chen, who rates Foxconn’s Taipei-based flagship Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. “hold” at Yuanta Securities Co. in Hong Kong.
  

This fits the pattern seen elsewhere in China, as more jobs are moved "indland" (i.e. west) where labor is cheaper.

[Jun 2, 2010: Cheap Labor Fighting Back in China]