To stay in semiconductor race, US must invest in STEM workforce

The world around us is increasingly powered by semiconductors, the chips that serve as the brains of everything from cars and smartphones to artificial intelligence, advanced wireless networks and our energy grid.

In a sign of the rising importance of expanding chip production and innovation globally, one of the major outcomes from President Joe Biden’s visit to Vietnam last weekend was an agreement to enhance collaboration between the two nations in support of strengthening the global semiconductor supply chain and workforce.

For many years, China and the governments of other global competitors have invested heavily in semiconductor technology. The U.S. government’s enactment last year of the landmark CHIPS and Science Act, which provides $52 billion for semiconductor manufacturing incentives and research investments, helps level the playing field. It puts America on track to capture a larger share of the world’s chip production – and the boost in job creation, economic strength and national security that come with it.

This historic opportunity has also intensified a longstanding challenge: As America expands its chip research, design and manufacturing footprint in the years ahead, it will need more semiconductor workers with the skills, training and education needed in the highly innovative semiconductor industry.

It’s imperative for leaders from government, industry and academia to collaborate on innovative ways to develop a talent pipeline to drive this industry – and the larger tech sector – for the next generation. To accomplish this, we must tap new approaches at home while ensuring a gateway for skilled international students.

Semiconductor jobs to grow by nearly 115,000 jobs by 2030

Since CHIPS was first introduced in Congress, semiconductor companies and their suppliers have announced dozens of projects in the United States totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment. These projects are forecast to create tens of thousands of new jobs and support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs throughout the U.S. economy.

In all, the U.S. semiconductor industry workforce is projected to grow by nearly 115,000 jobs by 2030 – from approximately 345,000 jobs today to about 460,000 jobs by the end of the decade – according to a recent study by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Oxford Economics.

The same report estimated that 67,000 jobs for technicians, computer scientists and engineers in semiconductor industry risk going unfilled by 2030 without action to strengthen America’s science, technology, engineering and math workforce.

The challenge of expanding the pipeline of STEM talent extends beyond the semiconductor industry. For the U.S. economy as a whole, an estimated 3.85 million additional jobs requiring proficiency in technical fields will be created by the end of 2030, according to the SIA/Oxford study.

Of those, 1.4 million jobs risk going unfilled unless we can add workers in STEM fields.

Fortunately, there’s a path forward to close the skills gap by bolstering the domestic STEM employee pipeline and attracting and retaining more international advanced degree students.

Not enough American students are studying STEM subjects, and those who do graduate with a STEM degree often pursue a career in a different field. Getting more students engaged with science and tech – and keeping them excited – must start as early as kindergarten. Doing so will require educators to join with public and private-sector leaders to launch recruitment and education campaigns, scholarships, research fellowships and more.

This work is already underway in parts of the country:

The 10-campus Maricopa County Community College District in Phoenix, for instance, began offering an intensive 10-day training program for students interested in a career in the region’s burgeoning fab cluster.

In Indiana, Purdue University recently started a semiconductor degrees program in which students can earn master’s, bachelor’s or associate degrees, through a collaboration with Ivy Tech Community College.

In our own hometown of Austin, Silicon Labs sponsors the Integrated Circuit Layout and Design certificate program at Austin Community College, one of the only public certificate programs in the country training for this critical technical skillset in semiconductor design. Silicon Labs regularly hires new graduates from this program and continues their skill development with an additional 400 hours of training.

These are the types of budding partnerships needed to fulfill our workforce needs. But to close the skills gap, programs such as these need to be scaled across the nation with urgency, as laid out in the SIA/Oxford report, because developing a deep domestic talent pool will take years – possibly, decades.

By the end of 2030, the U.S. semiconductor industry will be short 17,000 master’s and Ph.D. engineers. More than 50% of master’s engineering students and 60% of Ph.D. engineering students studying at U.S. colleges and universities are now foreign citizens.

And about 80% of master’s graduates and 25% of Ph.D. graduates leave the country after graduation, either by choice or because of U.S. immigration policy. Congress must reform our immigration laws to make it easier for U.S. companies to recruit and retain international students with advanced degrees.

Building out our talent pool is critical for the same reasons investing in domestic chip manufacturing was – it will bolster our economy and national security, advance our technological competitiveness and create stronger, more resilient supply chains.

President Biden’s Vietnam visit underscored the fact that building more robust chip supply chains also requires deepening collaboration with global partners. That’s why the United States and Vietnam announced a memorandum of cooperation to expand the semiconductor ecosystem in Vietnam. This effort includes the launch of workforce development initiatives there. Helping global partners broaden their semiconductor operations will reinforce America’s chip supply chains and create more U.S. job opportunities.

We’re on the way to ushering in a new era of American semiconductor production to match our leadership in semiconductor R&D. We should also invest in the people needed to fulfill that dream.