(Yicai) Aug. 20 -- Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has begun hiring more than a thousand workers per day at the Chinese Apple supplier's factories, as the release of the latest iPhone series is less than a month away, according to several recruitment agents

"Our company sent one to two hundred people to Foxconn today," a recruiter told Yicai yesterday at a talent market in Shenzhen. "Including those sent by other agencies, the total is estimated to exceed a thousand."

Most new employees yesterday were sent to Foxconn's two factories in Shenzhen, several recruiters noted, while Yicai saw dozens of workers with their luggage boarding buses headed to the firm's Zhengzhou plant, the world's largest iPhone assembly base.

The Zhengzhou factory has also attracted many job seekers to the city, with a company handling iPhone assembly operations at the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone also hiring, according to the latest information released by Foxconn's local recruitment partner yesterday. Workers will likely earn between CNY19,200 and CNY23,000 (USD2,670 and USD3,200) over three months, including base salary and allowances.

The average monthly salary of employees in urban private companies in Zhengzhou was around CNY4,810 (USD670) last year, according to data from the local statistics bureau.

However, the pay offered by Foxconn in Zhengzhou this year had dropped from previous years, with several agents predicting that after this week, the wages will gradually decline until the peak hiring season ends in mid-September.

Apple has faced sales pressure mainly due to the lack of significant innovation in recent iPhone models, with its global shipments dropping 2 percent last quarter from a year earlier, keeping it second by market share, according to data from market research firm Canalys.

In addition, iPhone shipments fell 1.3 percent in the Chinese market to rank fifth, according to the latest data from International Data Corporation.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev