Semiconductors are increasingly in demand globally. With chips being key components in most new gadgets, devices, and vehicles today, keeping the semiconductor supply chain undisrupted is a prerogative for organizations around the world. No one thinks semiconductor jobs are cool, which is somewhat fair. People need to understand that it’s not a boring manufacturing job. It’s extra creative and challenging. That involves getting people young, which isn’t being done yet.
The higher demand for software skills required to program and integrate chips into fast-growing markets will further exacerbate the shortage. New chip industry fabricating plants will need tens of thousands of skilled workers who don’t currently exist. Chips don’t just power our gadgets and make us smarter devices, they are the answer to many of the challenges society faces in areas such as healthcare, food production, and the energy transition. Advanced chips are also being used in low-emission homes built on smart energy grids, helping farmers optimize their crop yield and helping reduce the energy use of data centers.
Samsung, Intel, and TSMC are looking to fill thousands of chips jobs:
Almost 27000+ chip jobs are about to open up pending new money from Congress’ CHIPS Act. Many people in the U.S. aren’t familiar with semiconductor work. To fuel the surging thirst for semiconductors, chip industry heavyweights such as Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and Samsung have pledged billions of dollars for plans around the world. The global semiconductor market is valued at well over €412 billion.
Engineers from Taiwan and other countries with talent in the semiconductor industry will likely need to immigrate to the U.S. Given the U.S.’s track record with immigration. The US should hire more foreign talent and remove some visa barriers as part of a multi-pronged approach to secure its chip industry and supply chain said a research analyst from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). US chip industry businesses account for roughly half of the industry’s total revenue, yet only about 10% of the actual chips are manufactured in the US
Intel and Samsung have integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), that design and manufacture their chips. Samsung also acts as a ‘foundry’, along with TSMC these companies manufacture chips designed by other, ‘fabless’ semiconductor firms such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD that design chips but have outsourced manufacturing to South Korea or Taiwan.
The dominance of manufacturing in semiconductors shifted to Korea, TSMC in Taiwan, and stuff was drifting away from the U.S. Interest in fabrication, in actually making stuff, slowly went down. Nationwide expansion plans and related jobs could create as many as 27,000 new positions in the semiconductor industry over the next decade. As much as technology can automate processes and make workloads easier, closing the gap in the semiconductor industry can happen, but it is going to take time to get there.
