This tech giant to create more than 600,000 jobs in India, major part will include…

In a major fillip to the employment sector in India, Apple Inc., is expected to create up to 600,000 jobs by the end of the current fiscal year, thus significantly increasing its operations in the region. This growth is in line with Apple’s long-term plan to reduce its production reliance on China.

The total number of direct employment in India is estimated to be around 200,000 by March 2025 and women are expected to be around 70% of the total direct employment. This demographic shift has been a testimony to the fact that Apple has been supporting women employment, which has been seen from the time when Apple started its operations in India.

Currently, the three contract manufacturers of Apple in India, namely Foxconn, Wistron, now Tata Electronics, and Pegatron have generated 80,872 direct employment. Further, the first-tier suppliers like Tata Group, Salcomp, Motherson, Foxlink, Sunwoda, ATL and Jabil have created approximately 84,000 direct employment.

Apple has become the single largest creator of blue-collar jobs in India in the recent past, and its workforce is mostly women and young people. It is worth to note that since the launch of the smartphone Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in 2020, Apple vendors and suppliers have generated approximately 165,000 direct employment. This feat is way beyond the goal of creating 200,000 direct jobs for 10 selected companies in five years; Apple has been able to achieve this in four years.

The Tata Group has a twin plant at Hosur in Tamil Nadu, and it is expected to provide direct employment to about 50,000 persons in the long run. The iPhone production unit which is located adjacent to the group’s enclosure manufacturing plant is expected to start the commercial production of iPhones this October. Semi-annual production capacity will be increased step by step; employment opportunities in the area will be increased additionally.

Apple’s announcement to shift a part of its supply chain from China to India is a turning point in global manufacturing. In 2021 Apple also started iPhone assembly in India for the first time outside of China. Since then, the production of iPhones in India has been on the rise and is expected to touch Rs 120 trillion in FY24 out of which Rs 85000 crore will be an export. Currently, India contributes nearly 14% of Apple’s production compared to nearly 7% in FY23 and has emerged as a key export hub for the company.

According to the government’s estimates, there is a multiplier effect that shows that every direct position in the electronics industry creates three more indirect positions. This means that the Apple ecosystem could have created between 500,000 and 600,000 jobs by the end of March, which is a huge boost to employment in India.

The successful replication of the China model in India has resulted in the development of a complex ecosystem; in the China market, Apple has created over 4 million direct and indirect jobs in the manufacturing of its devices and applications in the last 25 years.