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Semiconductors support cell phones, cars, data centers, and artificial intelligence, but the global expansion of the sector hits an invisible bottleneck: there is a lack of qualified professionals to design, manufacture, test, and maintain the chips that drive an essential part of the digital economy.
The global semiconductor industry may need more than 1 million additional skilled workers by 2030, according to Deloitte, in a move that exposes a less visible bottleneck of the digital economy.
Behind this deficit is the lack of professionals capable of designing, manufacturing, testing, and maintaining the chips used in cell phones, cars, data centers, industrial machines, and artificial intelligence systems.
The warning goes beyond the opening of new factories and the competition between countries for technological autonomy, because the chip supply chain depends on highly specialized technical, industrial, and digital functions.
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Engineers, operators, technicians, manufacturing specialists, assembly, testing, packaging, automation, data, and software experts need to work in an integrated manner in high-precision and constantly updated processes.
According to Deloitte, the sector had more than 2 million direct employees worldwide in 2021 and will need to add more than 100,000 skilled workers per year until the end of the decade.
This pace puts pressure on universities, technical schools, and training programs, which cannot always keep up with the speed of industrial investments planned for the coming years.
Lack of professionals threatens chip expansion
The labor shortage helps explain why the semiconductor industry faces a strategic obstacle even after the most acute period of component shortages.
Previously concentrated in computers and smartphones, the demand for chips has now spread across entire sectors of the economy, including vehicles, medical equipment, cloud infrastructure, and industrial automation.
In cars, servers, and household appliances, semiconductors appear in automotive brakes, sensors, navigation systems, graphics cards, and equipment used by artificial intelligence companies.
As production capacity grows, so does the need for teams capable of operating clean rooms, controlling failures, supervising machines, and maintaining manufacturing lines without interruptions.
Deloitte reports that the global semiconductor industry revenue was slightly over $550 billion in 2021 and could exceed $1 trillion by 2030.
In practice, this advancement shows that expanding factories, installing machines, and granting public incentives are not enough if the supply chain does not train and retain people in a volume compatible with the expansion.
High salaries do not eliminate the bottleneck
Even with high remuneration, salary appreciation alone does not solve the shortage, because the main obstacle lies in the time required to prepare professionals for complex processes.
In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that electronics engineers, except those in computing, received a median annual salary of $127,590 in May 2024.
In the manufacturing of semiconductors and other electronic components, the median reached $142,760, while the top 10% earned more than $199,060 per year.
This data helps support the weight of salary ranges above $155,000 in technical and engineering careers related to the sector.
To work in this industry, a professional needs to deal with materials, circuits, quality control, sensitive equipment, and digital systems in environments where small failures can compromise entire batches.
Therefore, competitive salaries help attract talent but do not immediately create the necessary experience to operate advanced factories and high-sensitivity industrial processes.
Competition for talent goes beyond manufacturers
The chip industry also competes with software companies, banks, automakers, telecommunications, energy, defense, and large digital platforms for the same base of qualified talent.
Engineering, data, automation, and artificial intelligence professionals have become sought after by various areas at the same time, which pressures salaries and makes it difficult to retain specialists.
For manufacturers, the challenge involves attracting young people to careers little known to the public and retaining experienced professionals in a sector that requires continuous technical updates.
Besides engineers, the supply chain depends on workers who rarely appear associated with semiconductors but are crucial to turning billion-dollar investments into operational factories.
Deloitte cites the need for electricians, welders, and pipefitters to build new industrial plants, which also broadens the competition for practical technical training.
This scenario shows that chip production does not depend solely on sophisticated laboratories but on a broad base of specialized workers in different stages of the chain.
Production concentrated in Asia increases pressure
The shortage of professionals occurs in an industry marked by strong geographical concentration, built over decades in search of efficiency, scale, and regional specialization.
In 2021, about 80% of chips were manufactured in four East Asian countries, while more than 90% of assembly, testing, and packaging activities were located in these countries or nearby regions, according to Deloitte.
Although this model favored costs and productivity, the supply chain crisis exposed the global dependence on a few production hubs for essential components.
The United States and Europe began seeking greater local production, but decentralization requires new teams in more regions, from factory construction to advanced industrial operation.
Deloitte states that countries responsible for about one-fifth of global manufacturing aim to reach half of the market share by the end of the decade.
With this change, the chain may reduce vulnerabilities but tends to lose part of the labor efficiency achieved by the historical concentration of production.
Technical training becomes a central piece of the chain
To reduce the deficit, the response involves partnerships between companies, governments, universities, technical schools, and professional training institutions focused on practical skills.
Although the industry has a history of cooperation with universities and engineering schools, the expected growth requires expanding the connection with community colleges and technical programs.
The digitalization of manufacturing has made this training even broader, as chip production no longer relies solely on traditional engineering knowledge and industrial processes.
Today, professionals also need to work with automation, data analysis, cloud computing, and intelligent systems integrated into manufacturing lines.
In Brazil, the topic is of interest even when manufacturing occurs abroad, because automobiles, telecommunications, electronics, energy, and industrial machinery depend on imported components.
Thus, the global labor shortage can affect deadlines, costs, investments, and the availability of technologies in markets that do not concentrate semiconductor production.
For the consumer, the career behind the chips appears indirectly, in a faster phone, a car with more sensors, or a more powerful artificial intelligence platform.
For the industry, it has become an increasing competition for professionals capable of transforming microscopic designs into reliable and essential products for the digital economy.
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