TAIPEI -- Foxconn has found itself in an odd position as it has temporarily ceased new hirings because too many employees came back to work following the Chinese New Year vacation.

Employers give workers leaves of two weeks or more during the break each year. Many of those workers, who travel hundreds of miles or more from their hometowns to work at various factories in massive industrial parks in major trade zones in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou and other cities, decide not to return after the break.

At Foxconn this year, however, more employees than anticipated returned, and the world's largest ODM/electronics contract assembler has paused recruitment until the end of March.