{"id":940108,"date":"2026-07-17T01:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940108\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T01:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T01:56:14","slug":"does-arizona-have-enough-workers-for-tsmcs-phoenix-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940108\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Arizona have enough workers for TSMC\u2019s Phoenix expansion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 As Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company prepares to invest another $100 billion in north Phoenix<\/a>, a new report shows Arizona\u2019s workforce is not keeping pace with the education and training required to fill the jobs the expansion will create.<\/p>\n

State colleges and community colleges have scaled up programs to help meet workforce demand<\/a> since TSMC first opened its doors in Phoenix in 2022, but a report produced with the Arizona Board of Regents and the Rounds Consulting Group<\/a> shows the state still faces a significant shortfall.<\/p>\n

Shortage projected to grow each year<\/p>\n

Jim Rounds of the Rounds Consulting Group<\/a>, who worked on the report, said the gap is projected to grow each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be short about 10,000 workers per year going forward, and it\u2019s not just 10,000 by year two \u2014 it\u2019s 20,000, then 30,000 by year three,\u201d Rounds said.<\/p>\n

Rounds said he plans to work with state leaders during the next legislative session to address the shortage.<\/p>\n

Specialized skills in demand<\/p>\n

Anthony Howell, an ASU associate professor of economics and public policy and management<\/a>, said the semiconductor industry requires a specific set of technical skills that takes time to develop through education pipelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the main skills that the fab ecosystem demands \u2014 things like process engineering, photolithography, wafer testing \u2014 Phoenix, relative to other cities in the U.S., already has local specialization,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n

Howell estimates the new $100 billion investment will generate 10,000 to 12,000 construction jobs and another 12,000 jobs once the facilities are operational.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake for Phoenix<\/p>\n

Rounds said the outcome for Phoenix\u2019s broader economy depends on how the state responds to the workforce gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will if we respond in the right way,\u201d Rounds said when asked whether the expansion makes Phoenix more resilient moving forward.<\/p>\n

TSMC\u2019s expansion includes plans for four new chip-fabricating factories on a 900-acre campus in north Phoenix, adding to the $165 billion the company has already committed to the region over the last six years. The company\u2019s chips are used by Nvidia<\/a> and Apple, with much of the current demand driven by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u2018Largest foreign direct investment in the country\u2019<\/p>\n

Phoenix City Councilwoman Ann O\u2019Brien<\/a>, who represents the district where the expansion is planned, said the project carries national significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking it the largest foreign direct investment in the country,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the investment benefits Arizona residents directly. \u201cArizonans are able to get jobs here and grow their families. They don\u2019t have to leave and go somewhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No timeline announced<\/p>\n

TSMC has not announced specifics on the expansion plan, including when construction on the new plants will begin<\/a>. On an earnings call, the company\u2019s chief executive, Che-Chia Wei, said the timeline will depend on the market situation, but the company wants to accelerate the work as much as possible.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 KTVK\/KPHO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 As Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company prepares to invest another $100 billion in north Phoenix, a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":940109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[21233,5229,239,5643,378489,378493,67231,1587,378494,130084,378492,1671,1589,378491,378490,31937,148729,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,174558],"class_list":["post-940108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-ai-chips","tag-america","tag-apple","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-chip-jobs","tag-arizona-economy","tag-asu","tag-az","tag-chip-manufacturing","tag-community-colleges","tag-north-phoenix-fab","tag-nvidia","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-workforce-shortage","tag-semiconductor-jobs","tag-tsmc-arizona","tag-tsmc-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-workforce-training"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116932836725948142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}