Nearly half of electronics companies say they are struggling to recruit workers

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Nearly half of electronics companies say they are struggling to recruit workers

Sept 23 Reuters - Nearly four in five electronic manufacturer say that it has become harder to recruit qualified workers, compounding problems from an ongoing chip shortage and causing delays in shipping products, a trade group representing them said on Thursday.

IPC, which represents contract manufacturers like Foxconn chipmakers such as Intel Corp, circuit boards makers and other industry players, said that about 80% of respondents in its most recent survey said they were having trouble finding workers. More than two-thirds of the companies surveyed said that their labor costs were also rising.

The labor woes come at a time when the industry is also struggling with a chip shortage that began last year. More than half of the respondents said they did not believe the chip shortage would abate until at least the second half of 2022, with 90% of the companies saying their overall materials cost, which also include non-chip items, were rising.

The result of the survey was decreased delays and more profit margins, the survey reported. Less than a quarter of the companies surveyed said their profits were growing, with nearly a third saying they expected margins to shrink. And some 88% of companies said their lead times - the delay between receiving an order and fulfilling it - would go up, sometimes to as long as two months.

Shawn DuBravac, Chief economist at IPC and lead researcher on the study, said labor shortages were worst in North America and Europe, and electronics manufacturers would likely have to go beyond raising wages, which 44% said they were doing, to attract workers. More than a third of companies said they are providing more flexible hours or additional training and education.

It is more important in manufacturing sectors. It will also be, "We're going to train you," and it is! If there's an other education aspiration that you have, we'll work to help you with that, DuBravac said.