Apple has been trying to diversify its manufacturing base away from China after facing huge difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic when the production of iPhone and other gadgets came under intense pressure. Since then, India has become a huge target for Apple to set up its base and things have been moving apace with the iPhone maker making all the right moves to set up a permanent base here. While that has applied to the infrastructure, now, increasingly, Apple has put the employees it hires here on top of its priority list too. Recently, it was in the news because of its housing plans for its staffers and now, it is focusing on hiring numbers – which are massive!
It has been reported today that Apple, via its vendors, may well end up employing over 500,000 people in India over the next three years. according to PTI quoting government sources.
This is a massive jump from the current numbers which are about 1.5 lakh people in India.
The biggest job generator for Apple is Tata Electronics, which runs two plants for it.
“Apple is accelerating hiring in India. At a conservative estimate, it is going to employ five lakh people in the next three years through its vendors and components suppliers,” a senior government officer told PTI.
Such a huge workforce may be necessary as Apple wants to raise production here by over 5 times to around $40 billion (about 3.32 lakh crore) and that too within just 4-5 years.
This massive spending of funds on infrastructure and people is already being noticed for the results it is generating and the impact it is having on rivals. Market research firm Counterpoint Research, says Apple, for the first time ever, led the India market with the highest revenue in 2023. However, Samsung was still on top in terms of volume sales.
In fact, Apple has achieved the 10-million-unit mark, and more, in shipments and captured the top spot in revenue in a calendar year for the first time.
Another massive statistic showed that Apple’s iPhone exports from India jumped to $12.1 billion in 2023-24 from $6.27 billion in 2022-23. This was a huge jump of almost 100 per cent – this was as per the numbers shared by trade intelligence platform The Trade Vision.
However, Apple has not made any comments on these projections or claims so far.