According to a Business Standard study, technology firm Apple Inc. has surpassed all other employers in the electronics industry by creating one lakh direct employees in the last 19 months.
As stated in the report, they were produced by Apple’s Indian vendors and their ecosystem of component suppliers that promote the manufacturing of iPhones under the government’s phone Production Linked Incentive (PLI) programme.
Since the PLI program went into action in August 2021, the overwhelming majority of these fresh employment opportunities have emerged in the last 19 months.
The three companies that manufacture the iPhone, Foxconn Hon Hai, Pegatron, and Wistron, have created 60 per cent of the new employment overall. This surpasses their second-year goal under the programme to create new jobs by around 7,000 extra jobs.
Jobs for the rest 40 per cent have been produced by Apple’s whole ecosystem, which also comprises component and charger suppliers. These suppliers, which include firms like Tata Electronics, Salcomp, Avary, and Foxlink, have created an extra 40,000 jobs. The report also included Sunwoda and Jabil.
The report is determined by the three vendors as well as the businesses in the Apple ecosystem that are mandated to submit employment information to the government on a daily basis.
What do the numbers say?
Foxconn Hon Hai, a firm with offices in Tamil Nadu that only produces iPhones, has generated over 35,500 jobs, or more than a third, of the 100,000 total.
Pegatron, a Tamil Nadu-based firm that only started producing this fiscal year, is now the state’s second-largest employer with 14,000 employees. Karnataka-based Wistron has created 12,800 positions.
Sources have told BS that Tatas Electronics, Apple Inc.’s major component provider for mechanical parts, has recruited a sizable workforce in the distribution chain.
Based on the study, Salcomp, which has over 11,000 employees, as well as Jabil, Foxlink, and Sunwoda are the other contributors.
In a press statement from October 2020, it was anticipated that the smartphone PLI scheme would lead to the creation of two lakhs direct employment for five years.
Moreover, according to government figures, the manufacturing of electronics generates approximately three times as much indirect employment as it does direct jobs. Based on this estimation, the Apple environment has assisted in the creation of about three lakh jobs, both direct and indirect.
Over a period of seven years, mobile phone makers and their suppliers are estimated to have both directly and indirectly supported over two million employment, based on the India Cellular and Electronics Association.
In December 2022, Apple became the initial firm to export more than $1 billion worth of iPhones in a single month. The nine-month span from April to December 2022 saw sales of more than Rs 30,000 crore, or about 40 per cent of the nation’s total phone exports in terms of value, based on the research.
