The fab has produced its first qualification wafers. Reaching the yields that make the economics work typically takes another eighteen months, and the plant needs 900 more technicians.
Payroll growth has slowed to about 84,000 a month. Underneath the headline, hiring has narrowed to three sectors and the quit rate has fallen to a level last seen a decade ago.
A three-year study of eleven distribution centers found automation moved workers between tasks far more than it removed them — and made the remaining jobs harder to fill.