Since the city government of Chengdu invited electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn to set up factories in the provincial capital of Sichuan in southwest China in 2010, local public servants have had an extra task on their hands: hiring labor for the world's largest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics. If they should fail, officials will have to meet the demand themselves, reports the Chinese-language Economic Observer.

The production base of the Taiwan-based manufacturer in Chengdu has been the largest investment project in China's interior, which the city hopes will enable its transformation into a center of the technology industry. In 2010, the local government offered a number of preferential conditions regarding tax and land use to solicit the company, which serves as the main contractor for Apple as well as manufacturing products or many other major clients. Most surprisingly, the city also promised to secure workers for the company, and the recruitment goals have become an item on which local officials will be evaluated at the end of the year.

Hiring has not been plain sailing in the past eighteen months, however, and in order to complete their quota, some officials had no choice but to take up job offers at Foxconn themselves.

Chengdu is not the only city participating in the hiring process. It is standard practice for Foxconn to report its workforce needs to the provincial labor authorities, who then order other cities and towns to hire people to meet the company's demands.

There are often incentives and penalties involved for officials. In the city of Luzhou, an official can be paid a 600 yuan (US$95) bonus for signing up a worker, and 1,000 yuan (US$160) for additional workers. If an official does not meet his recruitment quota, the government will deduct 500 yuan (US$80) from his paycheck.

In the past year, the city located more than 12,000 workers for Foxconn's factory in Chengdu.

Liu Baoyu, an official who joined Foxconn in order to meet her personal quota, said the company's labor demands change all the time, depending on the production situation. "It has created chaos in the local government," Liu was quoted by the Economic Observer as saying.

A former Foxconn manager told the newspaper that working conditions at the company were harsh. "Many frontline workers stay for just three months," the manager said.

Another recruiter for Foxconn said many people quit in their first two weeks, which has become a huge burden on the company due to the costs of training and providing uniforms. The government has ordered that workers solicited by officials must work at least 15 days for Foxconn.

Some officials who found themselves unable to meet their recruitment target would seek help from headhunters to introduce workers to join Foxconn just for the 15-day minimum period.

Foxconn in Chengdu hired 120,000 workers when its iPad production in the city was at its peak. The number slid to 90,000 in October 2011 and now stands at around 60,000.

沪江英语快讯：成都的政府部门请富士康入驻，还真是“引狼入室”啊！公务员负责替富士康招工，招不到人扣奖金，再招不到人，就自己顶包进厂。富士康要求，工人必须在工厂工作15天才可离职，于是那些招不到人的公务员只好自己“下基层”15天凑人数。富士康的招工困境有多方面因素比如规模大，需要的工人多，当然也有因富士康的待遇问题引发劳动力频繁流动的情况发生。