The new Apple store in Sanlitun, Chaoyang district in Beijing Photo: cnsphoto

The world's largest iPhone factory, operated by Foxconn Technology Group in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, is on the race to hire at least 20,000 workers prior to the release of new Apple products and as demand for iPhones and iPads remains robust in China and overseas. 

A recruiting manager from the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou told the Global Times on Tuesday that the company is offering 7,000-8,000 yuan ($1,100-$ 1,257) in referral bonuses to workers, if the factory hires candidates amid the new round of recruitment after the Spring Festival.
 
The demand for new labor has always been strong after the holidays as plants ramp up efforts to complete orders, said the manager who asked to remain anonymous. "Last year, the referral bonus was up to 10,000 yuan," he noted. 

Currently, the labor shortage is quite large and about 20,000 workers are needed on a weekly basis, he said. The iDPBG group, a major section for producing iPhones, lacks labor.

According to Foxconn's recruitment website, plants in Langfang in North China's Hebei, Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong and Taiyuan in North China's Shanxi are all stepping up recruitment efforts. 

The week-long Spring Festival holidays meant that many factories in China took a break, but not Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou. Nearly 100,000 workers stayed put due to COVID-19 flare-ups at the start of 2022, according to Foxconn on February 2. 

In addition to salary and overtime pay, workers who stayed put in the factory could get a maximum of 3,000 yuan as an extra bonus during the Spring Festival holidays. 

The popularity of the iPhone 13 has contributed to the hot production at Foxconn plants. 

According to statistics by Canalys, smartphone shipments of Apple hit 21.5 million units in China in the fourth quarter of 2021 - the first time for the US tech brand to retake the top sales spot in the Chinese market since 2015.

"Apple saw unprecedented iPhone performance in the Chinese mainland, with aggressive pricing for its flagship devices keeping the value proposition strong. Apple's supply chain is starting to recover, but it was still forced to cut production in the fourth quarter amid shortages of key components and could not make enough iPhones to meet demand," Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia said on the company's website. 

In addition to iPhones, Chinese online shops also saw tight supplies of iPads. Beijing Business Today reported on Monday that there were no inventories of the iPad mini and iPad Pro (11-inch) on JD.com, a major Chinese e-commerce platform. 

Apple is targeting a date on or near March 8 to release a new 5G iPhone with low costs and an updated iPad, making 2022 a great potential for a record-setting year for product launches, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. 

TrendForce told the Global Times it expected that Apple will produce about 243 million iPhones in 2022, up 5.4 percent compared with 2021.