Apple iPhone 6 Release Date Coming: Foxconn Reportedly Hiring 100K Employees For New iPhone Production

Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) upcoming flagship smartphone, dubbed the “iPhone 6,” is set to enter mass production with Foxconn Technology Co Ltd (TPE:2354), one of Apple’s primary partners, reportedly gearing up for a massive hiring spree to produce the next-generation iPhone.

According to a report on Monday from Taiwan's Economic Daily News, Foxconn will recruit as many as 100,000 people to help produce the iPhone 6, boosting the company’s total iPhone manufacturing workforce by 10 percent. The report also stated that the latest hiring efforts by Foxconn, together with those by Pegatron Corporation (TPE:4938), are expected to drive the biggest job creation boom in mainland China in recent years.

In addition to the hiring spree, Foxconn is also reportedly planning to expand two of its production facilities to meet potentially high demand for the iPhone 6.

While the company is rumored to be responsible for the majority of the iPhone 6 orders, some reports also say that Foxconn would handle the complete production of a new iPhone model with a 5.5-inch display, AppleInsider reported. However, the report from the Economic Daily News said that Foxconn would produce 70 percent of the iPhone 6 units, while the remaining 30 percent would be handled by Pegatron, which reportedly made a similar hiring surge last year by increasing its workforce by 40 percent to manufacture the iPhone 5c.

Meanwhile, photos of purported iPhone 6 display panels, measuring 5.5 inches, surfaced on the Internet on Saturday, suggesting that Apple is indeed working on a bigger iPhone model, which is also referred to as the “iPhablet.”

Reports about Foxconn's hiring move and the iPhone 6 parts leak follow previous reports claiming that production for the iPhone 6 is set to ramp up in July, ahead of a release date sometime in September.

Other than the bigger screen, the iPhone 6 is also expected to feature multiple sensors, which would help the device measure altitude and atmospheric pressure, and provide various other weather-related information, such as temperature and humidity.