US Chip Workers Likely to Quit Jobs - McKinsey

[Barnsley]

AT A TIME when the US is looking to attract more skilled workers to semiconductor manufacturing, many current employees are rethinking whether they want to stick around, according to a McKinsey & Co report that underscores the chip industry’s labour challenges.

More than half of semiconductor and electronics employees said in 2023 that they are at least somewhat likely to leave their current jobs in the next three to six months, according to the report. That’s up from around two-fifths of workers in 2021. The most commonly cited reason was a lack of career development, followed by limited workplace flexibility.

“We’re going into a boom in terms of demand,” said Wade Toller, a senior adviser at McKinsey who spent two decades at Intel. “About a third of the population in the semi industry is over the age of 55. You’re starting to see signals that some of that population is becoming less satisfied.”

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/in...re-likely-quit-jobs-worsening-labour-shortage
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I suppose no great loss for a few folks on here with how they judge the US worker in general!

Maybe some business going to start to show their staff some respect and treat them as part of the team and not just work horses to be whipped until they keel over!

 

[blueone]

I think the McKinsey report is a complete waste of the photons and electrons it takes to transmit it.

 

[nghanayem]

I could only hope this is true, and that this is true it was a worldwide issue. The larger the labor shortfalls get that would hopefully catalyze a change in how the semiconductor manufactures source their talent to be more inline with the rest of the chemical industry. And while it wouldn't effect me I wouldn't complain if it also led to increased technician empowerment. They are crazy smart and from my experience they are underutilized. You give them the right training and more operational freedom/independence and I think even the skeptics would be impressed.

 

[icartist]

Wages. Low to no raises. No bonuses except for management. No career growth. For the last fifty years it’s been the same.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Wages. Low to no raises. No bonuses except for management. No career growth. For the last fifty years it’s been the same.

This is not my experience here in Silicon Valley. We are all about stock and options. If you have a big job market like we do here the competition to hire people is fierce which means good wages, raises, and career growth, absolutely.

 

[hist78]

This is not my experience here in Silicon Valley. We are all abut stock and options. If you have a big job market like we do here the competition to hire people is fierce which means good wages, raises, and career growth.

To certain degree the free market mechanism will help to resolve most of the labor shortage issues, for example:

1. Companies will raise the level of compensation to attract and retain talents.
2. Move people or hire people from other countries.
3. Change and improve the manufacturing process to produce more and/or use less people.
4. Move fabs to or start new fabs at other suitable places or in other countries.
5. More automation and AI assisted operations and manufacturing.

Unfortunately, union leaders/members, politicians, and a big portion of employees will put most attention on raising the compensation as the solution. Often it's too late to alter the decline by the time they realize the higher salary alone is not enough.

 

[TBiggs]

The article is probably about the America or otherwise known as “local” at the TSMC plant. They are leaving in droves as are the contractors.

Of course the Taiwanese, “assignees” ain’t going anywhere as they are all trapped by their visa and it is career suicide to ask to go back to Taiwan.

 

[Angdeviis]

I left because the constant crunch time and lack of work-life balance wore me down. Pay was okay, but burnout hit hard, and management didn't seem to really care.

 

[ai268]

I left because the constant crunch time and lack of work-life balance wore me down. Pay was okay, but burnout hit hard, and management didn't seem to really care.

It really depends how much the compensation is. There was one CNCB report couple years ago. Wall Street firms reduce weekly work hours to 100? hours/week and only provide one weekend every month. Has someone here worked with Stock Exchanges? Can you imagine the Stock Markets can not open, it happened, because of your mistakes and the company lost several hundred millions because of weekend test not normalized? And your pager or phone went off 3-4 AM quite often, then you need to take 05:50 AM bus to beat the Manhattan traffic to get into office by 7:00AM.

Compared with Wall Street, Silicon Valley is just low-stress. Do not forget Silicon Valley makes products for Wall Street.

This is not my experience here in Silicon Valley. We are all about stock and options. If you have a big job market like we do here the competition to hire people is fierce which means good wages, raises, and career growth, absolutely.

These are the real problems of US semiconductor manufacturing or any manufacturing industries. Silicon Valley wants "stocks and options" which are only feasible from start-up companies. Why US so-called tech companies only build "paper machines" because only smart people, pen and paper is needed, compared with hundred of billions dollars investment/cost, and success is NOT warranted? Therefore who are really stupid, especially from billionaire hedge fund managers and real-estate developers POV? TSMC or Silicon Valley?

 

[blueone]

It really depends how much the compensation is. There was one CNCB report couple years ago. Wall Street firms reduce weekly work hours to 100? hours/week and only provide one weekend every month. Has someone here worked with Stock Exchanges? Can you imagine the Stock Markets can not open, it happened, because of your mistakes and the company lost several hundred millions because of weekend test not normalized? And your pager or phone went off 3-4 AM quite often, then you need to take 05:50 AM bus to beat the Manhattan traffic to get into office by 7:00AM.

You really should get your facts straight before you post.

The stories about investment banks expecting employees to work 100+ hours per week relates to closing merger and acquisition deals, where the "prize" for the banks are the fees they get from managing the transactions. This isn't about keeping the stock exchanges open.

Compared with Wall Street, Silicon Valley is just low-stress. Do not forget Silicon Valley makes products for Wall Street.

Sometimes true, often not. I never had a job in the computing field where "work-life balance" was a consideration. Mostly I was doing something seven days a week, if I was on a hot project, which was often.

These are the real problems of US semiconductor manufacturing or any manufacturing industries. Silicon Valley wants "stocks and options" which are only feasible from start-up companies. Why US so-called tech companies only build "paper machines" because only smart people, pen and paper is needed, compared with hundred of billions dollars investment/cost, and success is NOT warranted? Therefore who are really stupid, especially from billionaire hedge fund managers and real-estate developers POV? TSMC or Silicon Valley?

Such nonsense. Many large US companies in many industries use stock options, stock grants (RSUs), and stock purchase plans to augment cash compensation. Not just start-ups.

The real problems of US manufacturing companies are over-regulation (especially during construction permitting phases), high construction costs compared to low cost geos, much higher labor costs than low-cost geos, and socialistic labor unions which are protected by federal and (some) state laws.

 

[tooLongInEDA]

Anyone know if this claim from the McKinsey report is correct ?

“About a third of the population in the semi industry is over the age of 55. You’re starting to see signals that some of that population is becoming less satisfied.”

That does seem very high. May be correct, but doesn't feel like that's a great sign for the US industry if true.

 

[blueone]

Anyone know if this claim from the McKinsey report is correct ?

“About a third of the population in the semi industry is over the age of 55. You’re starting to see signals that some of that population is becoming less satisfied.”

That does seem very high. May be correct, but doesn't feel like that's a great sign for the US industry if true.

In my recent experience, not even remotely close.

 

[BruceA]

Only folks over 55 are the VPs and above, all the others are high energy nose to the grindstone younger ones where I work.

You always want some older with energy and wisdom but lots of younger that can put in 100 hours and come back to fab at 2am with there are earthquakes or facilities screw ups.

 

[coldsolder215]

You can really tell who's over 50 in this thread. Smart Americans haven't been going into semiconductors since Reagan, they've been going into finance. Only people interested in the technology (suckers like me) or interested in becoming a US citizen go into semiconductors, and it seems the latter will be off the table soon enough. The industry is technologically stagnant relative to what it was until the 2010s, and unless AI starts enabling new frontiers instead of just replacing workers and concentrating profits, semiconductors will continue to commodify making the rope to hang itself. This will happen no matter how hard I alienate myself and those around me with antisocial ladderclimbing behavior. The only possible alternative to that outcome is a massive world war, after which all bets are off. I'm 10+ years in and planning on getting into subsistence farming, maybe join a commune, should be a real boom industry in about 5-10 years.

 

[Barnsley]

You can really tell who's over 50 in this thread. Smart Americans haven't been going into semiconductors since Reagan, they've been going into finance. Only people interested in the technology (suckers like me) or interested in becoming a US citizen go into semiconductors, and it seems the latter will be off the table soon enough. The industry is technologically stagnant relative to what it was until the 2010s, and unless AI starts enabling new frontiers instead of just replacing workers and concentrating profits, semiconductors will continue to commodify making the rope to hang itself. This will happen no matter how hard I alienate myself and those around me with antisocial ladderclimbing behavior. The only possible alternative to that outcome is a massive world war, after which all bets are off. I'm 10+ years in and planning on getting into subsistence farming, maybe join a commune, should be a real boom industry in about 5-10 years.

Correct!

It is very much the same in Singapore , it is neither a young mans game nor a well paid game.

 

[Xebec]

The stories about investment banks expecting employees to work 100+ hours per week relates to closing merger and acquisition deals, where the "prize" for the banks are the fees they get from managing the transactions. This isn't about keeping the stock exchanges open.

Compared with Wall Street, Silicon Valley is just low-stress. Do not forget Silicon Valley makes products for Wall Street.

Just want to echo blueone's comments/experiences;

I've worked at Vanguard (the one where the founder invented mutual funds, and the company manages $USD Trillions in assets), and also in Defense with a focus on IT and (Space) technology. The financial groups have a few heros, but the vast majority have a pretty decent work/life balance, not to mention serious perks that the other industires don't have. I came across a lot of people from BlackRock, and similar firms with similar experiences - the people who were working insane hours generally had problems saying "no" to new work*, rather than it being a systemic issue.

On the flip side - IT and "high tech" can be feast or famine - some roles (especially Tier 3 / engineering) are 7 day commitments - even if not all of the time, certainly during significant portions of the year. The tide is slowly turning here in the US but it's definitely more common here than finance. (Finance is also more likely to outsource some of these roles than other industries I've noticed).

From what I've seen on here regarding work culture in semiconductor plants and related (especially Taiwan/Korea), I think financial industries have it pretty easy.

*P.S. "High tech" leadership can occasionally find a path to 40 hours a week while making a really good salary -- though it requires a little bit of luck on top of being really good at delegation and negotiation to actually have enough competent staff to keep everything running smoothly. Clear scope management and PM skills are a must too for larger roles. (I could write a small book on this topic - Lockheed Martin really drilled into me how to delegate, though I mixed that with a 'servant' leadership style).

 

[Artificer60]

You can really tell who's over 50 in this thread. Smart Americans haven't been going into semiconductors since Reagan, they've been going into finance. Only people interested in the technology (suckers like me) or interested in becoming a US citizen go into semiconductors, and it seems the latter will be off the table soon enough. The industry is technologically stagnant relative to what it was until the 2010s, and unless AI starts enabling new frontiers instead of just replacing workers and concentrating profits, semiconductors will continue to commodify making the rope to hang itself. This will happen no matter how hard I alienate myself and those around me with antisocial ladderclimbing behavior. The only possible alternative to that outcome is a massive world war, after which all bets are off. I'm 10+ years in and planning on getting into subsistence farming, maybe join a commune, should be a real boom industry in about 5-10 years.

First you'll get no argument here that there are easier way to make a buck. I told all my kids not to go into engineering if was only for the money.

That said, not all of us are just about making money. Personally, finance has absolutely no appeal to me (I suspect much like you coldsolder). I find working in the manufacturing sector and actually having a hand in making something to be far more interesting and satisfying despite the long hours. And after spending over 15 years working with the equipment I moved into more of a support role that improved my work life balance significantly once I was no longer willing to be called in at all hours of the day and night. So the tech sector doesn't have to be all about sacrificing your life to the company. With some time, patience and a little luck you can work your way into a sustainable level of work life balance.

 

[ai268]

You really should get your facts straight before you post.

The stories about investment banks expecting employees to work 100+ hours per week relates to closing merger and acquisition deals, where the "prize" for the banks are the fees they get from managing the transactions. This isn't about keeping the stock exchanges open.

Sometimes true, often not. I never had a job in the computing field where "work-life balance" was a consideration. Mostly I was doing something seven days a week, if I was on a hot project, which was often.

Such nonsense. Many large US companies in many industries use stock options, stock grants (RSUs), and stock purchase plans to augment cash compensation. Not just start-ups.

The real problems of US manufacturing companies are over-regulation (especially during construction permitting phases), high construction costs compared to low cost geos, much higher labor costs than low-cost geos, and socialistic labor unions which are protected by federal and (some) state laws.

Anyone here believes in INTC and is going to bet "INTC 2026 DEC 60 call option" today?

• Due to the low probability, the option's premium—the price paid to purchase it—would be minimal, likely just a few pennies or less.
• That's the beauty of the far out-of-the-money call option Silicon Valley startup companies had been offering to their employees. Companies pay almost nothing for premium and employees dream on executing it someday if they work hard and with luck.

But anybody wants to get far out-of-the-money call option from BIG Corporations, like INTC? Even so, profit is minimum.

 

[hist78]

You can really tell who's over 50 in this thread. Smart Americans haven't been going into semiconductors since Reagan, they've been going into finance. Only people interested in the technology (suckers like me) or interested in becoming a US citizen go into semiconductors, and it seems the latter will be off the table soon enough. The industry is technologically stagnant relative to what it was until the 2010s, and unless AI starts enabling new frontiers instead of just replacing workers and concentrating profits, semiconductors will continue to commodify making the rope to hang itself. This will happen no matter how hard I alienate myself and those around me with antisocial ladderclimbing behavior. The only possible alternative to that outcome is a massive world war, after which all bets are off. I'm 10+ years in and planning on getting into subsistence farming, maybe join a commune, should be a real boom industry in about 5-10 years.

Thank you for your service

 

[benb]

McKinsey probably wrote this report with the restriction they couldn't mention work from home. It's a glaring omission.

The most experienced people in semis remember the culture of the 90s, when work was hard, but fun, individuals were respected more, and there wasn't this management culture of divide and conquer.

Divide and conquer has kept salaries down and workers in line but makes everything worse. Everyone is forced to be a mercenary and look out for themselves, no cooperation.

The new new thing to prevent salaries growing too much is yanking WFH so people leave. That didn't work as planned, people needed more encouragement to leave, so they are doing layoffs and concentrating work on the survivors. That makes the survivors leave as soon as they can, which is what is happening now. It's universal, same at Intel, Samsung and TSMC.

I think management is currently seeking new ways to make everything suck more, because salaries are still pretty high and growing. They can't collude on anti-poaching agreements, that's been ruled illegal. Inflation is a factor. The new kids have $200K in college loans. They can't make it on salaries < $100K a year, which means what do you pay someone with 15 or 20 years of experience? Everything moves up.