The US semiconductor industry faces a shortfall of about 67,000 workers by 2030, an industry association study published yesterday said.
The chip industry’s workforce is projected to grow to 460,000 by the end of the decade, up from about 345,000 this year.
However, at the rate that people are graduating from schools, the US cannot not produce enough qualified workers to fill the increase, said the study prepared by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Oxford Economics.
Photo: Reuters
The study comes as the US works to improve its domestic chip sector. The US’ Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, which sets aside money for new manufacturing sites, and research and development, was signed into law on Aug. 9 last year.
The US Department of Commerce is overseeing the US$39 billion in manufacturing subsidies stipulated under the act, and companies such as Intel Corp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co have said they would apply for them.
The law also created a 25 percent investment tax credit for building new chip factories, or fabs, that is worth US$24 billion.
Those factories would create jobs, the SIA said.
The projected shortage includes computer scientists, engineers and technicians. Roughly half of future chip industry jobs are expected to be for engineers.
“This has been a problem that we’ve been facing for a long time,” SIA president John Neuffer said. “But with the CHIPS Act in particular, and the kind of the bending the arc of history towards more manufacture here on US shores, it really kind of threw this acute problem into bold relief.”
The shortage of skilled chip workers is part of a larger shortfall of science, technology, engineering and math graduates in the US, the report said, adding that by the end of this year, 1.4 million positions might go unfulfilled.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS