Skilled worker shortage threatens US semiconductor plant construction SEMI McKinsey NSF report
US chip plants are short the people to build them: a report from SEMI, McKinsey and the NSF projects a shortfall of up to 157,000 skilled workers by 2030. TSMC $TSM has already reported Arizona delays tied to finding qualified equipment installers. Per Taipei Times.
Billions of dollars in planned US semiconductor plants are running into a problem money alone does not fix: there are not enough skilled workers to build and run them. A report released July 7 by chip industry group SEMI, McKinsey and the National Science Foundation projects a shortfall of as much as 157,000 full-time skilled workers by 2030. The US semiconductor workforce currently stands at roughly 345,000 jobs and would need to reach about 460,000, a 33% increase, to meet projected demand. Around 39% of needed technician roles may go unfilled. The squeeze is expected to be most acute exactly where the new fabs are going up: Texas, California, Arizona, New York and Ohio. TSMC $TSM, which is building major fabs in Arizona, has already reported delays in its production timelines because it could not find enough qualified people for the intricate equipment installation that advanced chipmaking demands. The implication is that the bottleneck in America's chip revival is shifting. Subsidies and capital solved the question of whether plants get funded; whether they get finished and staffed on schedule now depends on technicians, electricians and cleanroom specialists who take years to train. The report argues the industry needs to pool training resources and that government funding needs to continue. Reported by Taipei Times and Bloomberg.