Foxconn Says Current Hiring Freeze Due to Strong Returning Workforce, Not Waning iPhone 5 Demand

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by GermanyChris

"Human resources officials at Foxconn's largest factories, local government officials and external recruiters working with the company said there had been internal notices on Tuesday and Wednesday to halt hiring until at least the end of March, in response to reduced orders for the iPhone 5"

The PR mouth at Foxconn that works for the president of the company (most likley) who has a vested interest in said company denies..

Last I check the iPhone was an iOS device

The phone serves me well, the screen size is fine for me right now. I am in a contract I have no intention to force their hand.

Why so negative?

[PracticalMac]

Shes cute!

[TallManNY]

How does Foxcon know how many employees are returning from the holiday break when the holiday break ends five days from now? Maybe some folks come back early, but would projections be so solid at this point when many of the employees are staying until the end of the celebration on Sunday and only then getting on train on Monday for two day trip back to Foxcon factories?

Seems suspicious. But also consistent with what I think Apple is going to do which is accelerate to a twice yearly refresh rate on the iPhone.

[Yogomi]

It's so interesting that Apple is portrayed as the reason for hiring freeze out of all these companies:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Google
Hewlett-Packard
Microsoft
Motorola Mobility
Nintendo
Nokia
Sony
Toshiba
Vizio

These are all customers of Foxconn. Are they saying the iPhone 5 even keeps these other companies in business to require the need for the employees they have now?

Go.

[Undecided]

Originally Posted by Darth.Titan

What, does no one remember iPhone Girl?

Haha, so that pic is from like 4.5 years ago! Then again, Asians don't really age between 15 and 45 so maybe this pic is from yesterday.

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by TallManNY

How does Foxcon know how many employees are returning from the holiday break when the holiday break ends five days from now? Maybe some folks come back early, but would projections be so solid at this point when many of the employees are staying until the end of the celebration on Sunday and only then getting on train on Monday for two day trip back to Foxcon factories?

Seems suspicious. But also consistent with what I think Apple is going to do which is accelerate to a twice yearly refresh rate on the iPhone.

They may ask workers to indicate their intentions of returning. It would be bad business to simply wait until the day line was ready to start up to figure out if you had enough workers to staff it.

[mrgraff]

Originally Posted by Darth.Titan

What, does no one remember iPhone Girl?

So that's an iPhone 3G in that picture. I'm confident that the demand is low on that particular model.

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by Undecided

Haha, so that pic is from like 4.5 years ago! Then again, Asians don't really age between 15 and 45 so maybe this pic is from yesterday.

I'm sure you've all see this before, but it's always funny. And not intended to be racist, at least on my part.

[GermanyChris]

Originally Posted by JAT

Of course. I'm sure a guy from (assuming) Germany, and CNN shills, know more about Foxconn employees than Foxconn brass. That's patently obvious.

Except it's only the foxconn brass saying it's all gravy..

where HR, Employees, Government types, and Head Hunters are saying other wise..

[GuitarDTO]

Originally Posted by spyguy10709

and YET - CNBC still reports it as due to the iPhone 5 sales. I swear to god CNBC has been so anti-apple since it hit 700, it's not even funny. It's like there's a force driving bad news to bring down the stock price.

(Practical reason? SOMEONE [maybe even apple itself!] is going to place a HUGE order at a low amount.)

Welcome to the real world. Any media outlet is a form of propaganda. Apple has been the beneficiary of plenty of it themselves. CNN could have been renamed the Apple network the last couple of years. Forbes, and Motley Fool both rehash daily stories about how Blackberry is failing, and how Apple is going to skyrocket back to 700, because they lost their @$$es on the Apple stock falling (and shorting Blackberry stock) and they are trying to manipulate the market to do what is in their best financial interest.

[Sayer]

And a silver shortage was responsible for the delays in getting the new iMac into customer's hands.

[srxtr]

Originally Posted by lamerica80

The girl in the picture is happy because its her 12th birthday.

Don't be fooled, she's Asian. She could be 30 years old for all we know.

[kralnor]

Originally Posted by Darth.Titan

What, does no one remember iPhone Girl?

That's what I was thinking... Are all these people new to the Internet?

[TallManNY]

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

They may ask workers to indicate their intentions of returning. It would be bad business to simply wait until the day line was ready to start up to figure out if you had enough workers to staff it.

Agreed, but I was getting the sense that there was also an issue that workers get home back to their families and at the end of the vacation decide that they don't want to do another 3 - 4 month stint away from home. Also, I suspect, once home these workers ask around for local jobs that are comparable and if they find one during these two weeks (and granted competition must be highest then) they tell Foxcon to forget it. Remember these are often married adults with kids who are working at Foxcon and not seeing their families for months at a time. I was getting the sense that folks change their minds about coming back during the vacation and you don't know for sure if the worker is back until they walk through the gate.

[iGrip]

Originally Posted by Rogifan

Because the Financial Times is more reliable?

If there was any truth to the FT story Foxconn would most likely have said "we don't comment on blah blab blah".

Personally, I don't accept as truth anything that depends upon "x most likely would have...".

Your standards may be more flexible than mine, however.

[Glideslope]

Originally Posted by spyguy10709

and YET - CNBC still reports it as due to the iPhone 5 sales. I swear to god CNBC has been so anti-apple since it hit 700, it's not even funny. It's like there's a force driving bad news to bring down the stock price.

(Practical reason? SOMEONE [maybe even apple itself!] is going to place a HUGE order at a low amount.)

Yes. Amazing isn't it?

[Undecided]

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I'm sure you've all see this before, but it's always funny. And not intended to be racist, at least on my part.

Image

Nope, I've never seen that. Thanks for sharing!

[Chlloret]

Originally Posted by Yogomi

It's so interesting that Apple is portrayed as the reason for hiring freeze out of all these companies:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Google
Hewlett-Packard
Microsoft
Motorola Mobility
Nintendo
Nokia
Sony
Toshiba
Vizio

These are all customers of Foxconn. Are they saying the iPhone 5 even keeps these other companies in business to require the need for the employees they have now?

Go.

Good point. Apple is responsable for 9-14% of manufacture, up to 15% of turnover for Foxconn. Out of that, the iPhone5 is 1, maybe 2%. There are still about the same numbers of 4S and 4 being build. So, this 2% of manufacturing capacity should be responsible for a hiring freeze?
And the introduction of the first 30000 robots (out of a planed 1M) has also nothing to do with it. The massive decline in Dell computers, the loss of Samsung manufacture to there own factories (smaller hands) the reduction by 50% of Surface Tablets, the virtual standstill in Sony Playstations (all made in whole or in part by Foxconn) is not a contributing factor?

So the company comes out and explains even why there is no relation to the iPhone5, a tiny blob in the grand picture of 1.2 million Fosconn employees, and still someone tries to make a story about it? Is there no real news?

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by iGrip

Personally, I don't accept as truth anything that depends upon "x most likely would have...".

Your standards may be more flexible than mine, however.

So you think FT reporting based on unnamed sources is truth?

[Lark.Landon]

Originally Posted by Darth.Titan

What, does no one remember iPhone Girl?

It's her!

----------

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I'm sure you've all see this before, but it's always funny. And not intended to be racist, at least on my part.

Image

Lol. Married to an asian and that's the process her momma took

[Fatalbert]

I wouldn't be surprised if the demand was decreasing. It always happens when the phone has been out for a long time. It would make sense to stop or decrease hiring at certain times.

----------

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I'm sure you've all see this before, but it's always funny. And not intended to be racist, at least on my part.

Image

The lady on the far right is the grandma in Legend of Zelda the Windwaker. But I doubt Link is supposed to be Asian, at least not eastern Asian. I'd guess that he's Armenian since it's the kingdom of HYrule led by King HarkinIAN.

----------

Originally Posted by darth.titan

what, does no one remember iphone girl?

THAT'S HILARIOUS!
Wow, this has to go on the news somewhere.

[szw-mapple fan]

Originally Posted by lamerica80

The girl in the picture is happy because its her 12th birthday.

Yes, she was born on a leap year.