I think this commonly cited statistic is highly misleading. We don't know what the suicide rate is for all Foxconn employees. We do know that if you take the

I think this commonly cited statistic is highly misleading. We don't know what the suicide rate is for all Foxconn employees. We do know that if you take the highly visible suicides that occurred over a short period at the main plant all in the same fashion and divide that by the total number of people we think are employed by Foxconn we get a low "suicide rate". That isn't remotely the same the same thing. It's clear that these suicides were not random events. What's more relevant IMHO is the role that Foxconn's extremely high benefits paid to the first suicide did in encouraging others to follow suit. This link is the most persuasive in my opinion, also salient is the fact that the suicieds stopped when the company made it clear they would not be continuing with overly generous payouts to people who commit suicides. {They did also put up nets if you want to argue the opposite.}