Fresh from six months of training courses to build up his skills for a job in China’s talent-starved semiconductor industry, civil engineering graduate Frank Jiang has sent his resume to more than 20 chip companies since July.Not one has responded with an offer.
In China’s Covid-ravaged economic climate, workers have been looking to switch careers to an industry being prioritised by Beijing, only to find that it too is suffering in the downturn and job prospects are dimming.
“With lay-offs almost everywhere, the jobs at chip companies are at least stable with decent payment,” said Jiang, who is struggling to replicate a friend’s earlier success of switching from teaching maths online to becoming a chip verification engineer.