US to fight labour shortage with new Chips Act worker programme
- Some estimates project that the US will be short 90,000 technicians by 2030 – when the country aims to produce at least a fifth of the world’s most advanced chips
The Biden administration is kicking off a programme to cultivate the US computer-chip workforce, aiming to stave off a labour shortage that threatens to undermine domestic semiconductor production.
The programme, described as a workforce partner alliance, will use some of the US$5 billion in federal funding set aside for a new National Semiconductor Technology Centre (NSTC). The NSTC plans to award grants to as many as 10 workforce development projects with budgets of US$500,000 to US$2 million.
The centre also will launch additional application processes in the coming months, and officials will determine the total level of spending once all the proposals have been considered.
The money comes from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, a landmark law that set aside US$39 billion in grants to boost US chipmaking, plus US$11 billion for semiconductor research and development, including the NSTC. Firms have pledged to invest more than 10 times that in response to the incentives – a surge that is set to reshape the global supply chain for semiconductors. Monday’s effort is the legislation’s first workforce-focused funding opportunity.
Industry and government officials have warned that those new factories could falter without significant investment in labour. Some estimates project that the US will be short 90,000 technicians by 2030 – when the country aims to produce at least a fifth of the world’s most advanced chips.
