Munich The building permit hasn’t even been issued yet: Intel’s new factories in Magdeburg, worth billions, won’t open until the middle of the decade. Nevertheless, Christin Eisenschmid is concerned about finding enough staff. “The need is immense,” says the Germany boss of the American chip manufacturer.
The manager suspects that it will not be enough to place job advertisements. “Retraining programs are also very important,” explains the manager. “We have to think of all possibilities.” The group from Silicon Valley wants to create 3,000 jobs in the first stage of expansion in the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt.
Like Intel, all semiconductor companies in this country are desperately looking for people. The industry needs university graduates in electrical engineering or computer science as well as semi-skilled personnel who operate the highly sensitive machines.
It is true that many industries are like this. With the chips, however, the lack of employees is particularly critical. The future of German industry as a whole is at stake. Auto suppliers and machine builders are largely dependent on chip manufacturers from Asia – and they don’t supply nearly as many components as the companies need. Again and again the tapes stand still.
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With a large-scale support program, Europe should therefore more than double its share of global semiconductor production by 2030 – to 20 percent. At the beginning of the year, the head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the plan. 43 billion euros in public funds are to flow.
The fight for chip specialists is raging in Saxony
The companies are happy to take the money. Intel collects almost seven billion euros for the settlement in East Germany. However, it is uncertain whether there are enough employees to put Europe back on the map of the semiconductor industry.
The head of the Dresden chip start-up Semron is desperately looking for staff.
(Photo: Marc-Steffen Unger for Handelsblatt)
Take Dresden as an example: the chip manufacturers in the Saxon state capital use large-format posters to advertise for applicants. The region is Germany’s number one semiconductor location. Well-known names such as Bosch, Infineon and Globalfoundries manufacture here. No wonder that a battle for specialists is raging in Saxony.
This is a particular challenge for chip start-ups – i.e. those companies that could one day become corporations such as Intel or Infineon. “The universities in Germany set the wrong priorities,” complains Aron Kirschen, boss and founder of Semron. “Far too few microelectronics technicians and mathematicians are being trained.”
What Nvidia is doing with graphics processors, the start-up from Dresden aims to be doing with chips for artificial intelligence. Nvidia is the most valuable semiconductor vendor on earth. The chips from Semron, which was founded two years ago, are said to be particularly energy-efficient. For this purpose, Kirschen’s small team is developing a component that can both save and calculate. This should ensure low power consumption, because the data does not have to be constantly sent to the central computer.
The entrepreneur wants to more than double his team to a dozen by the end of the year. The search for personnel costs a lot of time and resources that Kirschen would rather invest in product development. “We could be much faster if we got enough suitable staff,” he says.
Little competition among graduates
According to him, not only candidates are missing. Many young people are rather unmotivated. “European applicants can now choose their jobs. There is no competition between them.” Anyone looking for a nine to five job is out of place with a start-up like Semron.
The requirements are high – and the image of the industry needs improvement. Compared to other tech areas and the automotive industry, the chip industry is not very productive as an employer, according to the consulting firm McKinsey. Strengthening your own brand could be a first step for companies to change that. “Companies may also need to review compensation, learning and development opportunities to ensure they are on par with companies in other industries,” the experts said.
The situation will not improve in the foreseeable future. “Not enough new talent is coming,” says Alfred Hofmann, spokesman for the newly founded Bavarian Chip Alliance. The initiative launched by the Free State is intended to advance the semiconductor industry in Bavaria.
>>Read here: Dependent on America: The German industry also lacks the guts when it comes to chips
Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger considers the industry to be crucial in order to counteract the lack of workers in other areas. Chips are essential to drive automation – the politician’s most important answer to the scarce staff.
It is worrying that many chip design experts will be retiring in the next few years, warns Intel manager Eisenschmid. They are the basis for the entire industry. It is therefore important to “build massive competencies in chip design” in Germany. In Bavaria, people are currently considering setting up their own design academy.
One thing is clear: the semiconductor companies need more and more people. The industry association Silicon Saxony estimates that around 100,000 people will be working in the microelectronics and communications industry in Saxony alone in 2030 – 27,000 more than today.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) is calling for special courses for chips – and on a grand scale. According to the BDI, around 2,000 highly qualified people would normally be employed in a new semiconductor factory. In order to achieve the goal of 20 percent world market share, Europe needs a whole armada of additional factories – Intel’s settlement in Magdeburg is just the beginning.
In addition, it is important to attract experts from other parts of the world, says the BDI. However, founder Kirschen does not consider this to be expedient: “Germany has a demographic problem, and we cannot solve it in the long term through immigration of top specialists or automation.”
The reason: “Other countries will also be able to automate – and the potential that is freed up will then be invested in innovations for which we lack the talent here.”
For the young entrepreneur, there is no way around making a quick and determined move at the universities: towards microelectronics.
More: PC market collapses noticeably – some manufacturers still benefit.