“There were reports yesterday that a Foxconn employee in the Chinese city of Shenzhen has committed suicide,” Paul Kedrosky reports for Seeking Alpha. “It means that the woman, 24, is the sixth Foxconn employee to commit suicide this year (and there are three more employees who unsuccessfully attempted suicide). Perhaps best known is that a male Foxconn employee, 25 years old, killed himself after being asked questions about a missing iPhone prototype.”
“And that’s why this sad story gets so much attention. To some, the connection to Apple’s secretive ways is easy to make,” Kedrosky reports. “After all, would it be any surprise if working with one of the most militantly guarded companies on the planet led some Foxconn employees to destructive levels of pressure and strain, even to the point of suicide? The narrative fits together so neatly.”
“Or does it? …The rate of suicide in China is, according to the WHO, 13.0 per 100,000 for men, and 14.8 per 100,000 for women (China is one of the few countries where the female suicide rate exceeds the male one),” Kedrosky reports. “Given 300,000 employees at Foxconn’s massive Shenzhen facility, we should, therefore, expect somewhere between 39 and 43 suicides a year…”
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