Apple’s vendors and their ecosystem in India have generated over 100,000 direct jobs, with women workers in blue-collar jobs accounting for 72 per cent of them. In the last 20 months, the majority of new hires have been women, with most of them entering the job market for the first time. This gender data was provided to the states and the central government.
The Apple ecosystem, which includes three vendors (Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron) that assemble iPhones and component suppliers, such as Tatas, Salcomp, Avery, and Jabil, has become the country's largest single-brand employer of women. Of the more than 70,000 women hired, most fall within the age range of 19-24 years old, with an average age of around 21.
The Foxconn factory is the best performer among the three vendors, when it comes to gender diversity, with 30,000 women out of a total of 35,000 workers, making up 85 per cent. Jabil, among its component suppliers, has employed 4,200 women out of a total of 6,000, at 70 per cent.
Most of the young women hired have passed their Class XII exams or have basic diplomas, and are mainly deployed on assembly lines. Apple's ecosystem runs a special skill development program that trains the women for a couple of weeks. Women's empowerment is expected to be discussed in the meeting between CEO Tim Cook and Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.