Apple's assembly partners are desperate for unskilled workers.

Businesses in Bac Giang province need to recruit more than 103,000 workers this year, mainly for Apple's partner factories, while Foxconn accepts applicants with at least a 6th-grade education.

The wave of industrial park expansion, coupled with increased production scale and returning orders, has led to a growing demand for recruitment in Bac Giang province. According to preliminary statistics from the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, factories need to recruit over 103,000 workers this year, mostly unskilled laborers.

A large recruitment poster from Foxconn hangs on a high-rise building in Bac Giang, early 2023. Photo: Hong Chieu — A large recruitment poster from Foxconn hangs on a high-rise building in Bac Giang, early 2023. Photo: *Hong Chieu*

In the first six months of the year alone, Foxconn, a component supplier for Apple, needed to recruit 15,000 workers for its factories located in the Dinh Tram and Quang Chau industrial parks. For the whole year, the company registered to recruit more than 27,000 workers.

Officially operating in Vietnam since March 2007, Foxconn established its first factories in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, then expanded to several northern provinces. This corporation is a crucial link in Apple's device manufacturing chain.

Companies that manufacture components for Foxconn, such as New Wing Interconnect Technology (Van Trung Industrial Park), need 27,000 workers, with over 6,000 workers advertised in the two months following Tet alone. Similarly, Fukang Technology Company needs to recruit more than 13,600 people.

Several other large businesses, such as Luxshare-ICT, which has factories in the Quang Chau and Van Trung industrial parks, are recruiting 47,300 workers this year. While the number of applications in February and March ranged from only 200-300 workers per recruitment round, by June and July, the factory in the Van Trung industrial park alone needed 7,000-9,000 workers each month to fulfill orders.

These factories need unskilled workers, "preferably aged 18 to 40 and in good health." Foxconn, however, accepts applicants with at least a 6th-grade education. The basic salary for this segment is 5 million VND, with social insurance contributions as per regulations and other benefits.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hue, Director of the Bac Giang Employment Service Center, said that 5 million VND is the general salary level for factories in the area. Businesses attract and retain workers mainly through benefits such as housing and food allowances, or overtime pay, raising the total income of workers to 8-9 million VND per month.

Workers participating in interviews at the Bac Giang Employment Service Center, July 2023. Photo: Xuan Hoa — Workers participating in interviews at the Bac Giang Employment Service Center, July 2023. Photo: *Xuan Hoa*

According to Mr. Hue, factories simultaneously recruited large numbers of workers at the beginning and middle of the year to meet production plans, making it very difficult to find people and resulting in insufficient supply. In contrast to the situation where workers were scrambling for jobs at the beginning of 2023, orders after the Lunar New Year (Year of the Dragon) were abundant, so factories tried to retain their existing workforce.

"Many companies' human resources departments have had to travel to remote villages in the North and Central regions to recruit people, or ask employees within the company to introduce relatives and friends," he said.

Bac Giang currently has over 7,600 operating businesses, employing 306,000 workers. Of these, 80% are local workers and 20% are from other provinces. The province has experienced a boom in the real estate market over the past 5-6 years, driven by the development of industrial zones.

Hong Chieu

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