A hiring blitz that has seen around 50,000 extra workers employed by Foxconn’s Chinese operations in just two weeks has firmed up rumours that Apple’s iPhone 16 will launch in September.

One of Apple’s key partners, Taiwan’s Foxconn hired the 50,000 to work at its Zhengzhou factory in China, according to local Chinese media. It is the world’s largest iPhone factory, with some 200,000 staff.  

To lure the workers, bonuses were offered. More staff are required.

In late July Foxconn posted recruitment information on major job sites and social networking services offering an increased hourly wage, Business Korea reported.

State-run Chinese publication Global Times quoted “a recruitment manager surnamed Wu at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant” as saying: “We need a lot of workers and will take as many as we can get, mainly for the production of the iPhone 16 series.”

The peak production time at the factory is September to December.

Apple aims to ship 90 million iPhone 16s this year.

Conditions at Foxconn’s factories have come under intense scrutiny in recent decades following reports of worker mistreatment, and multiple deaths by suicide. It was found that staff were not paid overtime, and that factory accidents were not reported. A 2010 report from 20 universities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland described their factories as “labour camps”.

In 2022 staff walked off the job over unpaid wages and Covid restrictions.

According to the International Data Corporation, in the first quarter of 2024 Apple (15.6%) ranked equal third with OPPO (15.7%) in the Chinese phone market, with equal first place going to Honor (17.1%) and Huawei (17%). While Huawei’s year on year first quarter growth was up 110%, Apple’s fell by 6.6%.