It is no secret that diligent, high-quality engineers are one of the primary reasons Taiwanese chipmakers outpace their global competitors. Although Taiwanese firms prefer local talent, companies are under mounting pressure to seek new talent outside of the country for several reasons.
A sustainable supply of dedicated engineers and a low turnover rate are contributing factors to Taiwan’s leadership in the global semiconductor industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) said last month. The company has an annual employee turnover rate of about 4 to 5 percent, which is much lower than the 15 to 20 percent at US companies in the 1970s and 1980s, he said, calling high turnover “a disaster problem,” as it takes years to train technicians and engineers.
Macronix International Co chairman Miin Chyou Wu (吳敏求) has said that Taiwan is the optimal semiconductor manufacturing hub, given its diligent engineers and relatively low manufacturing costs, adding that the world’s No. 1 NOR flash memory chipmaker had no intention of making its chips elsewhere.
The problem is how to recruit and retain talent to keep businesses humming in a rapidly changing world, especially as local chip companies’ customers are urging the firms to expand outside of Taiwan and China amid an escalating US-China trade dispute. Local semiconductor companies have been forced to reconsider their old strategies and step out of their comfort zone. TSMC is building new fabs in the US, Japan and Europe, which requires it to seek out foreign-trained talent to run those factories.
Taiwanese semiconductor companies reported a shortage of 23,000 engineers per month from April to June this year, even though the industry is undergoing an inventory correction cycle, data compiled by local job agency 104 Job Bank showed.
When homegrown talent grows scarce, businesses try to recruit foreign-trained engineers to fill job vacancies. Contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), Micron Technology Inc’s local unit and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co last month participated in a US recruitment program arranged by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. The end result was a total of 350 jobs offered by 23 companies, the ministry said.
Apart from the US, where the job market is traditionally filled with tech-savvy workers, the ministry also organized a talent acquisition trip to emerging job markets such as Malaysia and Singapore in March. Plenty of semiconductor companies, from TSMC and UMC to chip packager Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc and chip tester Ardentec Corp, joined the recruitment drive as Malaysia has become a global computer chip packaging hub. Taiwan’s largest mobile phone chip designer, MediaTek Inc, also participated in the ministry’s Southeast Asia recruitment trip for the first time.
With the semiconductor supply chain shifting to Southeast Asia, the ministry plans to arrange two more job recruitment trips to India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, given the quality talent in those countries and some similarities in culture with Taiwan. Vietnam has become the new focus, as it joins India, the US, Japan and Europe in granting subsidies and tax incentives to semiconductor companies with the aim of building a local chip industry. Intel is reportedly evaluating new investment in Vietnam to expand its chip testing and packaging capacity.
Although it will be a challenge to build a semiconductor supply chain that is as cost-efficient as Taiwan’s, Taiwanese companies are considering adapting themselves to a transformation in the industry to avoid losing their competitive edge.
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