Back in January 2022, we wrote Intel’s $20 Billion Ohio Plant Mistake which critiqued Intel’s plan to spend $20 billion on a new semiconductor plant in Ohio. The key problem with Ohio is the demographic structure of the state with the median age at 40 and insufficient access to a young workforce that can grow with the company.
Bloomberg had an article out describing the exact same problem. From Bloomberg:
It’s been only six months since the groundbreaking ceremony, but Intel’s lead contractor is already scrambling to find workers. Catherine Hunt Ryan, president of manufacturing and technology at Bechtel Corp., says the project’s need for electricians and pipe fitters “is significantly outstripping the supply of labor in the local area.”
Bloomberg.com
The Bloomberg article is highly informative and we encourage you to read it in its entirety but we already knew this was going to happen and there is literally nothing being done to address the problem. Most states plan on poaching other states people as part of the solution to their labor problem but that won’t work over the long term because there are only so many people to poach.
Ohio’s other plan seems to be to allow kids to work as late as 9 p.m. to help solve the labor shortage and we find that alarming and sad. From Cleveland.com:
The Ohio Senate on Wednesday passed a bill targeting the workforce shortage by allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. any time of the year if they have permission from parents or legal guardians.
And a Union exec for the railroads said the recent derailments were cause, in part, by labor shortages.
We anticipate the labor shortage problem to grow exponentially as baby boomers retire in the millions over the next few years. Stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…