Apple ecosystem in India creates more than 250,000 new direct jobs

70% of workers women; indirect employment pegged at 750,000

Apple Inc has emerged as one of India’s largest and fastest-growing creators of blue-collar jobs over the past five years, generating more than 250,000 new direct positions following the launch of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile-phone manufacturing in 2021, which is set to conclude at the end of March 2026. Notably, more than 70 per cent of these employees are women, many of them aged 19 to 24 and first-time job seekers, according to data submitted by various vendors to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) under the PLI and Electronics Component Manufacturing (ECM) schemes.

 

The Cupertino-headquartered company’s two principal iPhone vendors in India, the Tata group and Foxconn, have together generated roughly 140,000 direct jobs during this period, according to data, exceeding the 118,290 jobs originally committed under the PLI scheme. The government had set an overall target of 200,000 new direct jobs across all eligible participants over five years.

 

The remaining 110,000 direct jobs have been created by a mix of Indian, foreign and joint-venture companies, largely micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which have rapidly expanded within Apple’s ecosystem to manufacture iPhone components. These firms are now spread across eight states: Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

 

These companies primarily supply components to iPhone assembly plants, while some, such as Jabil and Aequs, export directly into Apple’s global supply chain. Beyond these, new direct jobs have been added across Apple’s fast-expanding domestic component network of more than 40 companies. Prominent among them are Tata Electronics, Hindalco, Bharat Forge, VVDN Technologies, Wipro PARI, Salcomp, Motherson group, Sunwoda Electronic, Foxlink, SFO Technologies, and TEAL.

 

At peak operations, Foxconn, which began ramping up production in FY22, employs more than 70,000 workers across its two factories. The Tata group, operating three iPhone facilities, employs about 72,000 people.

 

What distinguishes this hiring wave is that workforce training has been driven almost entirely by the private sector, without direct technical or financial assistance from the government. Most recruits undergo several weeks of structured training before moving onto the shop floor. According to industry sources, the average monthly salary in mobile manufacturing has climbed to nearly Rs 18,000-Rs 20,000, up from about Rs 11,000 before the PLI scheme took effect.

 

The government had estimated that mobile-device manufacturing would generate indirect employment at roughly three times the level of direct hiring, around 600,000 jobs, by the end of the PLI period. Apple’s ecosystem alone, it’s believed, has surpassed that projection, creating an estimated 750,000 indirect jobs. In 2025 (January to December), India’s smartphone exports reached $30 billion, with iPhones accounting for $23 billion, or 76 per cent of the total. As a consequence, smartphones have vaulted from the country’s 167th-ranked export a decade ago to its single largest export between 2015 and 2025. 

Employment landscape 

80% rise in entry-level blue-collar wages compared with pre-PLI levels 

• Workforce skilling and training were undertaken without financial or technical government support

• 140,000 direct jobs generated by Tata group & Foxconn, leading iPhone assemblers, surpassing targets in under 5 years

• 110,000 additional direct jobs created, mainly in the past three years, by 40 other Apple ecosystem suppliers