No one thinks semiconductor jobs are cool, which is somewhat fair. “How’s work at Google?” sounds much better than “How's work at the chip fabrication plant?” But chip work needs to get big because Congress is betting on it, Protocol’s Anna Kramer and Max Cherney report.

Almost 30,000 chip jobs are about to open up pending new money from Congress’ CHIPS Act (the legislation’s been delayed). But filling those roles is already proving difficult: Many people in the U.S. aren’t familiar with semiconductor work. That needs to change.

• New chip fabs from Samsung, Intel and others are on track to open sometime in 2024, and they need homegrown talent to fill those factories.
• But because chip work is unpopular around here, engineers from Taiwan and other countries with talent in the semiconductor industry will likely need to immigrate to the U.S. Given the U.S.’s track record with immigration, that’s going to be tricky, too.

The good news is that chip work is lucrative and exciting. Young U.S. workers just need to understand that.

• Proximity to chip companies helps. Anna and Max spoke with one worker who got into semiconductor work through programs at his university that act as pipelines into the industry.
• Exposing students to chips in the same way they’re taught about engineering or coding could also push more people into the field.

Training enough U.S. workers for these new semiconductor jobs is a hurdle. But Anna told me a common refrain among academics and companies alike: try to make chipmaking sound just as exciting as any other job at a Big Tech company. And start ’em young. "[The semiconductor industry] needs a PR makeover, essentially, to entice people to see it as cool and sexy. People need to understand that it's not a boring manufacturing job. It's extra creative and challenging. That involves getting people really young, which isn't really being done yet," Anna told me.

Read the full story here.

— Sarah Roach (she/her/hers)