A news report from TV Tokyo’s World Business Satellite has been aired in which a Foxconn recruiter claims that the company is hiring 18,000 new workers for production of the iPhone 5, which, according to the recruiter, will be launched in June.
The exchange took place at Foxconn’s plant in the suburbs of Taiyuan, China, where 80,000 workers are already employed. The brief clip of the reporter talking to the Foxconn recruiter appears just over seven minutes into the news segment.
While it’s unlikely that a recruiter would be provided with info about Apple’s iPhone 5 launch plans, he would know of Foxconn’s hiring goals, and job needs. This could offer some insight into the production plans.
There have been previous reports that Apple could return to a mid-year launch timeframe with the next iPhone, but many observers believe that the interval of just 8-9 months from the 4S debut is too short for the Apple development cycle. Most analysts believe a repeat of last years autumn timeframe is most likely for the next launch.
