The surprising reason few Americans are getting chips jobs now

Giant factories are rising up in the desert all around this city. It’s ground zero for President Biden’s massive bet that he can bring back to America one of the 21st century’s most important manufacturing jobs: making semiconductor chips. Congress approved $53 billion in funding, and the White House has just announced preliminary agreements to give billions in grants to corporations such as Intel, TSMC and Micron. Now comes the greatest challenge of all: finding enough workers to make it a reality.

Already, the companies have struggled to hire enough construction workers, especially welders and pipe fitters. Factory openings are being delayed until 2025 or later. And the industry needs up to 70,000 new workers to run the fabrication plants, known as “fabs.” These are not your grandparents’ manufacturing jobs. Many will be engineers and computer scientists. About 28,000 will be technicians who don’t need a four-year degree but do need specialized skills. Think of them as digital toolbelt jobs: Technicians program the machines that churn out the tiny chips that are so critical to smartphones, cars and missiles.