China's plans to achieve world leadership in the field of design and production of microcircuits are threatened by a "chronic shortage of personnel," reports Tuesday South China Morning Post.
Until 2015, due to low salaries, university graduates with a specialty in the production and design of semiconductor devices preferred to get a job in an Internet company.
Since 2016, thanks to tax benefits and direct state support, additional human resources have been attracted to the industry, but the deficit is only growing. According to the publication, in 2019 China lacked 300 thousand people for the design and production of chips. In 2018, the deficit was estimated at 150 thousand people.
As of the end of 2019, 510 thousand Chinese people worked in the microelectronic industry. For comparison, 280 thousand people are involved in the production and design of semiconductor products in the USA. However, the quality of engineering training in the USA is higher than in China.
Experts call closer cooperation between universities and chip manufacturing companies, as well as higher salaries and hiring foreigners, a way out of the situation.
