Apple suppliers need 103,000 workers in Vietnam this year

U.S. tech giant Apple’s contract manufacturers in Vietnam plan to hire over 103,000 workers this year, mostly for their factories in northern Bac Giang Province.

Foxconn, Apple’s biggest supplier, needs 15,000 workers for its plants in the Dinh Tram and Quang Chau industrial parks (IPs) in the first half of the year, and 12,000 in the second.

New Wing Interconnect Technology, a Foxconn subsidiary based in the Van Trung IP, will hire 27,000 workers this year, including 6,000 in the next two months.

Fukang Technology, another Foxconn unit with a plant in the Quang Chau IP, needs 13,600 more workers this year.

Another Apple supplier, Luxshare-ICT, plans to hire 47,300 workers at its plants in Quang Chau and Van Trung IPs.

It will hire 200-300 people a month in February and March before increasing it to 7,000-9,000 after June or July when it expects to receive more orders.

All these factories require workers aged 18 to 40 who have graduated high school and are in good health.

Foxconn is even willing to take in applicants who have only completed the sixth grade.

All the companies will pay a basic salary of VND5 million (US$203.8), social insurance contributions and other benefits, according to Nguyen Van Hue, director of the Bac Giang Province Job Center.

They usually attract and retain workers mainly through other benefits such as housing rent and meal allowances and overtime work, which take workers’ incomes to VND8-9 million a month, he said.

Factories simultaneously hiring en masse makes it difficult to find enough people quickly, he said.

In contrast to the mass layoffs early last year, factories are trying to maintain their workforces this year since they have massive orders.

“Many companies’ human resources personnel have even traveled to small villages in the northern mountains and central region to hire people, and ask existing employees to introduce relatives and friends.”

Bac Giang has over 7,600 businesses that employ around 306,000 workers.

Its real estate market has been thriving for the last five or six years and several industrial zones have been built or expanded.

Business upscaling and a surge in new orders has led to soaring demand for labor here.

Foxconn has been present in Vietnam since 2007 when it established plants in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces before expanding to several other northern provinces.

It is a critical cog in Apple’s supply chain.