A rather long blog post by the Oregonian's
Mike Rogoway wherein he attempts to determine who will fill those jobs. See also the
BeaverJournal. See my earlier
post. While it is clear that there is an unemployed pool from which to draw workers, but it isn't addressed how many will be hired locally in Hillsboro or how many might be Portlanders.
The graph to the left demonstrates that depending on the reference point the construction industry is suffering, but this is not necessarily reflective of the particular parts of the industry that will be involved at Intel.
There was a peak of construction jobs at about 115,000 to 70,100 today. A drop of 44,900 jobs - about a 40% loss. A large drop too with the Hi-tech jobs. From a peak, about 2001 -02, of approximately 50,000 to today's 34,400 shows about a 33% loss or about 15,600 jobs.
The advertised number of workers to be hired: construction workers 6k to 8k and manufacturing hi-tech jobs 800 to 1,000. While it appears to be a much needed shot in the arm, in fact, it may only help ease the unemployment situation of
10.6%. The construction workers will only start to be hired next year and the remainder after the facility is completed. And some of these workers will be for the Arizona facility.
It appears that the construction jobs will be filled out of the local Hillsboro union hiring hall. Thus, unless there are more jobs than unemployed union members - non union workers may be out of luck. E.g., Mr. Rogoway built his article in part around an unemployed construction worker, but it would seem that unless he is a union member, we are not told, he will not necessarily find a job when the work commences next year.
Mr. Rogoway states that Intel
"fills existing research factories with a mix of skilled manufacturing staff and engineers trained at the world's top research universities." In the past, according to Mr. Rogoway "Intel has also drawn on Portland Community College and the Oregon Institute of Technology for trained factory technicians." But most extant position at Intel "
require a two-year associate's degree."
It doesn't sound promising except maybe for a few. Are there many with the necessary qualifications ready to go to work? Apparently it is thought that those "experienced tradesmen and tradeswomen with experience in fab construction" that worked on Intel's current research fab that opened in 2003 will be available as a pool for new hires. That is 7 years ago - are any of them needing work or even available?
Please read the article, but it seems that there will be a limited in state pool for hi-tech workers and the construction jobs will be union members thus making it difficult, if not impossible, for non union workers to find a job. Mr. Rogoway's featured unemployed construction worker may still be unemployed next year.
I had wondered too in the earlier
post about the state and local governments financial involvement. Mr. Rogoway notes that "
Intel enjoys tremendous tax advantages in Oregon, which exempts the company's manufacturing equipment from the property taxes other businesses pay. That saves Intel close to $40 million a year." And that "[c]
hanges in how Oregon calculates corporate income taxes, first approved in 2001, cut Intel's Oregon income tax bill by at least as much."
Oregon is clearly a good business climate for Intel, but while it will provide needed construction jobs, temporary by nature, and will provide hi-tech work for a relatively few Oregon workers - it will do little towards easing the unemployment rate of 10.6% .
