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American semiconductor jobs are making a comeback

The United States is continuously increasing its efforts to cultivate talent in domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

After two decades of declining or stable employment demand in the U.S. semiconductor industry, job opportunities created by the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing sector are growing once again. This article will introduce the latest trends in semiconductor manufacturing employment and how the funding and incentives created by the Biden administration's CHIPS and Science Act may stimulate the industry's continued growth.

Recent Recruitment Situation

The United States invented the semiconductor. However, during the 2000s and early 2010s, many semiconductor companies closed their U.S. factories and shifted production to lower-cost overseas locations. Between 2002 and 2009, the semiconductor manufacturing industry lost an average of 13,400 jobs per year, and by 2009, employment in this sector in the United States was below the levels seen before the personal computing boom of the early 1990s. Employment in the industry bottomed out in the 2010s, remaining between 180,000 and 190,000 jobs throughout the decade. In recent years, U.S. semiconductor manufacturers have tended to focus on the manufacturing processes for so-called "traditional" or "mature node" chips used in automotive and consumer electronics, while the manufacturing of the most advanced logic chips has been concentrated in a few companies manufacturing overseas.

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Unlike many other industries, semiconductor manufacturers did not undertake large-scale layoffs when the pandemic broke out, possibly because semiconductor manufacturing takes place in sterile environments and the demand for electronic products intensified during the pandemic. During the global chip shortage, recruitment in the United States surged in 2021 and 2022 as traditional U.S. semiconductor manufacturers increased hiring at existing U.S. factories. This recruitment coincided with President Biden's passage of the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022, which encourages businesses to invest in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing so that the United States can have a more resilient domestic semiconductor supply chain. Since 2021, semiconductor employment has been growing at an average annual rate of 4.3%, and by 2023, it will exceed 203,000 workers. Between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023 (the latest available data), semiconductor manufacturers added about 6,000 jobs. Since the beginning of 2023, the shortage of traditional semiconductors has significantly eased, but the number of jobs in their manufacturing industry has not correspondingly decreased. One reason is that the widespread presence of these traditional chips in personal electronics and automobiles means that demand will continue to exist.

The job opportunities created by these facilities are typically high-quality and well-compensated. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage in the semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing industry exceeds the wages of the entire manufacturing sector and several other comparable industries. In particular, the median wage for these jobs is nearly twice that of retail jobs.

Future Recruitment

[The rest of the article would continue to discuss future recruitment trends, potential growth in the semiconductor industry, and the impact of government policies and incentives on job creation and industry development.]Looking ahead, with the unprecedented investment by the U.S. government in semiconductor manufacturing capabilities coming to fruition, hiring is expected to be robust in the coming years. The CHIPS and Science Act provides $39 billion in direct incentives for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing investment. Federal incentives are designed to support investment across the entire semiconductor ecosystem. Since 2022, the industry has announced over $200 billion in manufacturing investments, covering areas such as specialized analog chips used throughout the economy, cutting-edge logic chips that drive the AI boom and the latest smartphones, and upstream supply chain components like specialized chemicals and silicon wafers. These investments aim to enhance domestic resilience and reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions due to geographic concentration.

The first non-binding preliminary financing term memorandum (PMT) under CHIPS was announced in December 2023, aimed at modernizing mature node production facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire. However, even before the initial disbursement of CHIPS funds, the commitment of future funding has prompted many companies to announce investments and begin construction of new chip production facilities, creating job opportunities in the construction industry as well as in planning and processing factories to raise the level of manufacturing. For instance, two of the world's leading chip manufacturers announced new factories in Arizona in 2021 and conducted extensive hiring before these factories became operational. Similarly, a company in North Carolina has hired a large number of employees for a new factory, which plans to start chip production in 2024 and has announced its intention to apply for CHIPS funding immediately after construction begins. Many newly announced investments are targeted at facilities at the forefront of semiconductor production technology, either by producing chips with the smallest possible transistors or by innovating with new materials.

As federal funds flow to semiconductor manufacturers, the CHIPS and Science Act should drive more private sector investment. As companies staff these new facilities, employment in the U.S. advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry is expected to continue to increase in the near term. In the coming years, investments may drive demand for highly skilled workers at all levels of education, with an industry estimate predicting at least 25,000 new positions for technicians without a four-year degree by 2030, and a similar level of demand for engineers with higher education (an overall increase of at least 25%).

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