Posted on 05/28/2022 1:48:32 AM PDT by blam
To solve the semiconductor shortage, companies now have to deal with a labor shortage…
We have extensively covered how major semiconductor companies have been responding to the global chip shortage over the last couple of years. One of the most notable companies to take action has been TSMC, who is in the process of building a $12 billion chip fab in Arizona, not far from where Intel is expanding their campus.
TSMC’s project is racing to come online by 2024, but there remains a major obstacle for both companies: securing labor. “Simply finding enough workers to build the facilities has already proved a challenge,” according to a new report from Nikkei.
Over 6,000 workers are currently on site trying to get the facility up and running by its targeted 2024 timeline, the report says. While it was tough to find construction workers, finding the skilled technicians necessary to work at a chip plant is proving even tougher.
Kweilin Waller, deputy human services director at the Phoenix Business and Workforce Development Board, commented: “You say ‘semiconductor manufacturing’ [to potential recruits], people look at you like you have two heads. It’s just unfamiliar.”
“I think those students that we are trying to recruit to ultimately become employees don’t know what they don’t know. So even before we give consideration to the seven semiconductor manufacturers that they could work with, they need to understand, ‘What is a semiconductor technician?'” added Daniel Barajas, a careers director at the Maricopa County Community Colleges District.
Intel is trying to tackle the problem by creating a close relationship with The Schools of Engineering at ASU, which have about 27,000 students enrolled.
TSMC doesn’t have the history that Intel does with the university to attract such talent as easily.
Kyle Squires, the school’s dean, said: “Indeed, it’s more of a challenge [for TSMC to attract students]. The informal networking [among students] starts to really grab on.”
One associate professor at ASU said: “TSMC recruiters have been very heavily present on campus. TSMC is presently negotiating with the university for some extended collaborations, both in research and in workforce development, and broader training programs.”
TSMC only had plans of hiring in the U.S. before sending employees to train in Taiwan, but now the company is considering hiring directly from Taiwan, the Nikkei report says. “TSMC is focused on hiring employees, including technicians, locally in the U.S. for our Arizona fab,” a spokesperson said.
Jennifer Mellor, chief innovation officer at the Greater Phoenix Chamber, concluded: “I think TSMC is really trying to get their name known in the market, and they’re actually doing a really good job of trying to connect with different education partners.”
Interviewer to applicant, where are your school grade transcripts, applicant, grades are racist. We don't have grades...we have certificates of attendance.
That’s what happens when companies went overseas and the previous staff got old
So an EE degree isn’t a dead-end pursuit after all.
>> That’s what happens when companies went overseas and the previous staff got old
They hoped for indefinite offshoring.
Tech, a different sector, but similar offshoring consequences that lagged about 20 years behind the heavy industries...
During the 80s , I embraced the concept of expansion, but when the “offshoring” began, the related hype was mindless BS — the neocon talking points, and the excuses regarding the “lazy, overpaid” domestic workers. Recall Pat Buchannan’s warnings?
Not gonna give the unions a pass. Their effective, collective greed is destructive, and was a contributing factor. But ultimately, the offshoring was an alternative (form of revenge) that went too far.
I keep telling my granddaughters that STEM is their best bet to get a free ride for college.
That’s a reasonable arrangement. Requires 5 years of in-state employment, right?
“Requires 5 years of in-state employment, right?”
Haven’t got that far. Is that an AZ thing or do most states require that? And I would assume that is only for scholarships to state colleges.
Unions and their Democrat politician allies who enabled them were an absolute disaster for this country. Their extortionate tactics and destruction of productivity drove US manufacturing offshore.
“Right in the middle of a desert”
Hey, chips need silicon and there’s a lot of sand in that desert.
It's an odd work environment - quiet and VERY dry. The nosebleeds stop once your body adjusts.
Learned some pretty cool stuff about optics and lasers, though.
Prospective American workers are too busy trying to figure out which gender they are and obsessively checking to see if Donald Trump is under the bed. They’re useless for anything other than spray painting statues or spreading monkey pox.
I’m NY, and that’s my understanding.
The Upper Colorado River Basin got a good amount of snow, they will be fine.
Agreed
The biggest problem right now is the lack of housing here in Phoenix.
EE...Brought back memories of when us EE’s would have keggers with the others EE’s; female Elementary Education students. Us nerds were schooled for sure. That was 50 years ago in the early 1970’s but I remember it like it was last year.
“but now the company is considering hiring directly from Taiwan,”
Well, problem solved. Just do what the tech companies are doing and import. On the other hand I am sure they will have no problem finding their Chief Diversity Officers and filling the HR with “Studies” graduates. The unions can’t wait to dig their claws in to this factory.
from:
https://engineering.asu.edu/enrollment/
About 33% of 2021 bachelor’s engineering students on-line. About 7% int’l
3,100 bachelors granted 2021; 531 computer sci, 320 EE, 230 IT, 229 graphics IT, 273 ME. Fewest apparently manufact. eng at 4.
“This is allowing us to push beyond Moore’s Law.”
Direct from their website. There is no “Law.” Just an observed trend. Always been a pet peeve of mine. And their website is full of the usual “ESG” DEI climate change and other woke garbage for “stake holders.” Not share holders.
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