US semiconductor manufacturing jobs soar past 200,000
The US government has proclaimed the rise in chip manufacturing employment after the slump of the 2010s – and says manufacturers are now adding about 6,000 jobs a year.
In a blog post, the White House stated that, since 2021, semiconductor employment has increased an average of 4.3% per year to more than 203,000 workers in 2023. This represents a reversal after two decades of decline due to off-shoring.
Although the US invented semiconductors, and dominated the industry for half a century, jobs in sector went overseas at the start of the 2010s. Between 2002 and 2009, US semiconductor manufacturing declined by an average of 13,400 jobs per year and by 2009 employment was lower than in the early 1990s. The business that remained was based around “mature-node” chips used in cars and consumer electronics.
The landscape changed with the passage of President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act in 2022. It provides $39 billion in direct incentives for investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing. As a result, domestuic hiring increased an average of 4.3% per year to over 203,000 workers in 2023. And these are well paid jobs. The median wage is nearly double that of jobs in retail trade.
