Consumers queue up to experience the new Huawei Mate 60 Pro on September 3, 2023, in Shanghai. Photo: VCG

Foxconn Technology Group, the contract producer for Huawei and Apple, is hiring more staff and hiking wages to make Huawei's new Mate series, the Global Times learned from various sources on Sunday.

In what could be seen as a reflection of the growing competition between Huawei and Apple to gain market share, a Foxconn recruitment manager based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Sunday that Foxconn's production line for Huawei is reportedly offering higher wages than that of the production line for Apple to attract more workers.

Foxconn's iDPBG group - the one that makes iPhone - offers hourly wage at around 21 yuan ($2.88), resulting in a base salary of 2,460 yuan per month with overtime pay, the recruitment manager told the Global Times on Sunday.

Foxconn's corresponding production group for making Huawei's mobile phone pays 5,000 to 6,000 yuan a month, although its hourly wage was cut from 26 yuan per hour, he said. "Now, the highest hourly wage at Foxconn is 27 yuan per hour at a factory in Songgang in Shenzhen," the manager said.

Mass recruitment is also taking place in Huawei's own plant. A recruiter told ThePaper.cn that at Songshanhu, Huawei's research and development base in Shenzhen, the company is recruiting 2,000 to 3,000 people, mainly to make Huawei's mobile phones. Including benefits, these jobs can pay 9,000 per month, according to the media report on Saturday. The benefits are better than at Foxconn.

Huawei launched the long-awaited high-end Mate 60 smartphone series for pre-orders on September 8, a move that industry observers said may signal a gradual recovery for what was once the world's No.2 smartphone maker. This launch coincided with that of Apple's new iPhone 15 series.

Huawei's Mate series set off heated discussions in the internet, surpassing the usual excitement surrounding product launches. This is especially remarkable as the company has been operating under the shadow of targeted US sanctions. The high expectations and positive sentiment toward Huawei's new products are evident in pre-orders, which sold out the new phones within minutes after the launch.

Experts said that there are multiple reasons why the recruiting scale and wages are higher for Huawei's mobile phone.

"One reason is because of strong market demand for the company's new series. Huawei's new phone launch was very sudden, and Foxconn may only have learned about it on short notice," Ma Jihua, a Beijing-based senior industry analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday. If the company has to hire many people in a hurry, recruitment fees are likely to be higher.

Apple mobile phones once held the lion's share of the former market share of Huawei mobile phones due to US sanctions targeting the Chinese tech company. But with the launch of Huawei's new smartphones, it is expected to regain some of the lost share, Ma said.

"Of course, this also depends on its shipping speed and shipment volume," Ma noted.

The mass recruitment and higher wages are likely to be short-term phenomena, and as production capacity recovers, these factors should gradually stabilize, the expert said.