Foxconn faces challenges hiring thousands for plant

Now that Wisconsin has a pledge from Foxconn to build a $10 billion plant and create 13,000 new jobs, the question is, can the jobs be filled?

“They’re not going to get (the incentives) if they don’t provide the jobs and don’t provide the capital investment,” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said on Thursday about the state’s commitment to provide up to $3 billion in tax credits and other incentives to Foxconn over 15 years. “We tie it to performance.”

Foxxcon, the Taiwan manufacturer that makes electronics for Apple Inc’s iPhones and other tech companies, announced its new plant on Wednesday at the White House, along with President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who represents the state, and Walker.

On that same day, Amazon said it plans to hire 50,000 people at its US fulfillment centers, including a sprawling facility in Kenosha, not far from Foxconn’s potential new sites.

Though the job growth and the byproducts of having Foxconn are “fabulous” for the state, Foxconn will “have its hands full” trying to find thousands of employees, Gus Ramirez, executive chairman of Husco International, a Waukesha manufacturer of automotive industry components, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“Obviously, 13,000 jobs all at once in a short period is challenging,” said Patrick O’Brien, executive director of the economic development organization Milwaukee 7. “But we have a higher than national share of IT and manufacturing workers, our works from public schools to technic colleges and universities will stand up to meet their hiring demands.”

He said that beyond the 13,000 jobs directly created by the plant, it will bring at least 22,000 indirect positions at suppliers and other employees, along with 10,000 construction jobs over each of the next four years, and 6,000 indirect jobs from the construction.

Foxconn will be pay the new workers an average of $53,875 a year, plus benefits. And Jason Dedrick, a professor at the school of information studies at Syracuse University, said, “If you offer enough money, you can get people to fill these positions.

“People come out with engineering degrees, especially physicists, for electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers, they have lots of opportunities and choices,” he said. “It’s going to be very challenging given that the job market is very tight nationally and in Wisconsin.”

Steve Koenig, senior director of market research at the US Consumer Technology Association, said, “Wisconsin, in particular, has many great higher learning institutions that are capable of meeting the needs of such employers that locate in the area.”

Terry Gou, Foxconn chairman