Hotels In Virginia Beach | "Apple manufacturer Foxconn stops hiring workers in China"

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Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group has frozen hiring at a Shenzhen plant that makes gadgets including the iPhone 5 and stopped recruiting for other factories across China, but said the move was not linked to any client.

Foxconn, which runs a network of factories across the world's No 2 economy that make products for tech companies from Hewlett Packard to Dell, sought to deny a Financial Times report that it had imposed a hiring freeze while it slows production of Apple's latest smartphone.

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"Due to an unprecedented rate of return of employees following the Chinese New Year holiday compared to years past, our company has decided to temporarily slow down our recruitment process," the company said. "This action is not related to any single customer and any speculation to the contrary is false and inaccurate." Like other Chinese contract manufacturers, Foxconn relies on migrant labourers across the country, who journey home for the most important holiday of the year. Many do not make it back to work, but Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo said this year up to 97% of employees returned.

Apple sold 47.8m iPhones, fewer than expected, in the final 2012 quarter, fanning fears of declineas Samsung Electronics Co and other manufacturers that use Google Inc's Android software gradually gain market share.Apple watchers often take cues from its component suppliers and manufacturing partners. In January, CEO Tim Cook took the unusual step of warning investors that it is difficult to extrapolate from limited "data points".

RBC estimates that just 70-80%of Chinese workers return to factories it tracks.

"This year we believe the return rates have been closer to 90%, which may minimise the need to hire," RBC analyst Amit Daryanani wrote in a Wednesday research note.

"Given the timing of the freeze, it may have more to do with higher return rates of employees versus what was expected by Foxconn and other supply chain companies."

Foxconn's latest statement contradicts another Foxconn spokesman, Liu Kun, who is cited in the newspaper on Wednesday as saying, "Currently, none of the plants in mainland China have hiring plans."

A check on Foxconn's recruitment website on Wednesday showed the company's Taiyuan and Hangzhou plants were hiring. But its factory complex in the southern city of Shenzhen is its single largest production base.

The Shenzhen plant "is not hiring at the moment because workers' return rate after Chinese New Year is very high this year, reaching 97%," Woo said.

"We replenish each year depending on the return rate."