Foxconn is engineering a different projected workforce at its Racine County facility. Time will tell if the projects are credible or if 'Foxconn Light' is on tap.
It wasn't that long ago that Foxconn was saying that it planned on hiring a few thousand engineers and more traditional, hourly production workers:
Even if I am underestimating the categories, Foxconn is looking hire engineers equal to a large fraction of the current engineering sector in Wisconsin, raising questions like: where are these people going to come from; do state facilities have the capacity to help recruit and train them; and is an unintended consequence of Foxconn's potential presence here a brain drain from other businesses, and faculty staffs?
It wasn't that long ago that Foxconn was saying that it planned on hiring a few thousand engineers and more traditional, hourly production workers:
A WEDC staff report prepared [in October, 2017] roughly supports...[that] about 27 percent of the 13,000 employees are expected to be engineers and 28 percent technicians, with just under 7 percent in business-support roles such as finance, human resources and information technology.
The remaining 4,995 employees — 38 percent — would be hourly “operators,” the report said.Now Foxconn's chairmen Terry Gou is saying after discussing the project with Donald Trump that it's projected Wisconsin workforce of 13,000 employees will hire far more engineers. than blue collar workers:
"Foxconn plans to hire more than 10,000 engineers to do research and development," he said.I note that a 2017 Wisconsin employment analysis lists about 23,000 computer, industrial, electrical, mechanical and other engineers employed in the state along with others in categories which I am assuming are not as relevant to what Foxconn will hire
Even if I am underestimating the categories, Foxconn is looking hire engineers equal to a large fraction of the current engineering sector in Wisconsin, raising questions like: where are these people going to come from; do state facilities have the capacity to help recruit and train them; and is an unintended consequence of Foxconn's potential presence here a brain drain from other businesses, and faculty staffs?
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| At Foxconn's Mount Pleasant building site: Out with the cabbage, in with the engineers? |