America Faces Chip Worker Shortages as Tech Firms Build More Factories

The current federal administration in Washington and the one it succeeded both agreed on the need to bring more semiconductor manufacturing onto U.S. soil. The methods they used or are using to attain this objective may vary, but the intention is clear. As those efforts begin bearing fruit, tech firms ramping up their manufacturing footprint in America are facing a skilled worker shortage that could have serious ramifications on those companies and the country.

An analysis undertaken by McKinsey and the SEMI Foundation indicates that the U.S. is likely to face a shortage of 127,000-157,000 employees in the semiconductor industry by 2030.

This warning comes as several companies, such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, get ready to launch expanded production at their manufacturing facilities on U.S. soil. Samsung revealed that its two facilities in Texas would provide approximately 3,500 job openings. However, the available pool is so small and the firm is hard-pressed to fill all the positions for technicians, engineers and supply chain specialists.

Of special concern is the lack of sufficient engineering talent to fill the available positions in the semiconductor industry. According to some sources, just a paltry 3% of engineering graduates in America join the semiconductor industry each year, and more than 7-in-10 employers in the chip industry report that they find it hard to get enough engineers to take up available jobs at their firms.

A number of initiatives are being undertaken to solve this worker shortage. The SEMI Foundation has launched four Nodes in each geographic region of the U.S. to ramp up the education of talent intended to work in the microelectronic field. More will be opened to increase the rate at which these skilled employees become available.

April Arnzen, an executive VP at Micron, says no single institution or company can solve the worker shortage alone, which is why collaboration between industry, academia and governmental bodies is the way to go.

The Chips Act, enacted in 2022, has helped to spur the creation of semiconductor programs in at least 80 community colleges, and more universities are responding to the market need for trained workers to serve in semiconductor facilities. Hopefully, these efforts will create a sufficient pipeline to provide the talent that chip manufacturers require for their operations.

SK Hynix and Samsung are looking to source workers from South Korea as a stopgap measure until local talent becomes available to take up those positions. It would be interesting to learn how software solutions providers like Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) are faring in terms of getting the specialized talent they need to develop solutions for the different segments of the AI industry.

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