Oregon's microelectronics industry tries TV ads, hiring students to help labor shortage

Intel has taken to running TV ads during the Portland telecast of Sunday Night Football, one of the most popular programs on the air — but not to hawk its microprocessors.

It’s trying to lure workers.

And at a time when the most entry-level job seekers are in demand at restaurants, hotels, bus companies and heath care clinics, Intel’s pitch is to perhaps try advanced microcircuitry manufacturing instead.

The microelectronics industry faces a particular labor squeeze. Demand is up at nearly every chip company. And Intel, the state’s largest corporate employer, plans to open a $3 billion factory expansion in Hillsboro early next year that will add hundreds more jobs.

Electronics companies large and small say they’re struggling to find workers, so they’re putting up billboards, buying TV and radio ads and bringing in new hires still in school to plug the holes.

“I think a lot of people have this misconception that Intel is this black box or that Intel is only hiring people with a master’s degree or a Ph.D.,” said Intel spokeswoman Elly Akopyan. She said the company’s ad campaign aims to demystify chip manufacturing and make it clear it’s a job that just about anybody can do.

“We need to create a pipeline of manufacturing workers to come work for us,” Akopyan said.

Oregon exported $15 billion in electronics last year, 60% of all the state’s exports. The state’s electronics output climbed another 26% through the first half of 2021, reflecting huge demand for the chips that run computers, smartphones, cars, trucks and home appliances.

The Portland area’s manufacturers would certainly make more chips – if only they could find the workers to do the job.

“It seems like every other week I get a call that says, ‘I could hire 100 people right now,’” said Eric Kirchner, chairman of the microelectronics department at Portland Community College. Intel hasn’t said that the labor shortage is constraining production, but many others in the industry have.

Technology is one of Oregon’s largest industries, as important to the state’s economy today as timber was in its 1970s heyday. And electronics manufacturing pays well.

Chip manufacturing equipment supplier Watlow said last week that it is hiring 20 technicians for its Hillsboro site at a starting wage of $25 an hour, with a retention bonus for those who stay with the company and an annual corporate performance bonus.

Portland Community College’s microelectronics graduates typically earn a starting salary around $60,000 after completing the two-year program, according to Kirchner. And he said pay rises sharply as workers build experience.

Yet Kirchner said recruitment has always been a challenge. The work is typically done out of sight, in windowless cleanrooms that keep the electronics free from even microscopic contamination. So there’s very little awareness of what the job is, he said, let alone what it pays.

“People think, oh, it’s high tech, I don’t understand high tech. I can’t do that,” Kirchner said. “Anybody can be a technician. We’re going to train you the technical stuff. You need people that can work in teams and show up for work on time and manage a schedule or follow a procedure or checklist. You don’t have to be a technical genius to do that kind of stuff.”

Of Intel’s 21,000 Oregon employees, roughly 10% have a master's degree. The company’s Washington County campuses are home to its most advanced research.

But for the jobs Intel is advertising on TV, it seeks only a high school diploma – and the ability to spend all day on your feet.

Austin Robertson had planned to go into nursing after he graduated from high school seven years ago. But a few years into his training, he decided it wasn’t a fit for him. After stints working at Safeway and at a jail in Columbia County, a friend suggested Robertson try electronics manufacturing instead.

So he started an associate’s degree program at Portland Community College.

Robertson is taking classes intermittently, so doesn’t expect to complete the coursework within two years. But Intel hired him anyway. He’s in his third month as a technician, learning on the job and fitting in his college classes around his work schedule.

“I love it. It’s the best job I’ve had,” Robertson said. He said he thinks he’s found a career that feels meaningful, working in an advanced industry and getting to know a new field.

“It’s just working with a lot of knowledgeable people and working with stuff that’s kind of hands on,” Robertson said. “It just feels like I’m doing something important.”

That’s just the kind of thing manufacturers want to hear from their new hires. But there don’t seem to be many other people thinking that way.

With wages rising across Oregon industries, and job openings abundant, Kirchner said many people are choosing to work instead of enrolling in his program.

“We’re about as low as I can remember with the number of students starting the program, which really hurts,” Kirchner said. “That means in two years we’re not going to graduate very many people.”

While many people can learn on the job, Kirchner said the additional education would get ahead and position them for promotions and higher pay down the road, while making them more productive over the course of their careers.

Manufacturing equipment supplier Lam Research has added 1,000 jobs in the past 18 months at its 52-acre Tualatin campus and plans to hire 300 more for a new factory opening this fall in nearby Sherwood. To meet that increased demand, Lam has hired first-year electronics students at Portland Community College to work part time while they pursue their degree.

“Technicians are so unavailable, with the associate of applied science degree, that they said, ‘We’re going to grow our own,’” said Bill Manley, a PCC employment specialist who works with the microelectronics industry.

Electronics manufacturers say it takes about two months to get a new hire up to speed on the basics of the job and a year to be fully qualified in some areas. So there’s no quick fix in sight for an industry that would prefer to hire experienced workers.

“We’re resorting to hiring other folks and going through longer training periods and hoping we can build the folks up over time. But they don’t become really effective quickly,” said Frank Nichols, founder of boutique Vancouver manufacturer Silicon Forest Electronics. He said his clients have a year of work lined up for his company, but the hiring shortage is limiting the degree to which he can cash in on that.

“The outlook is very rosy, actually,” Nichols said, “if we can find the people.”