As reported by CTV News, 7,000 workers will be needed for a $20B semiconductor manufacturing operation in Ohio.
The state's largest ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge however: how to find 7,000 construction workers in an already booming building environment.
This is of course, further complicated when there's a national shortage of people working in the trades.
"This project reverberated nationwide," said Michael Engbert, an Ohio-based official with the Laborers' International Union of North America.
"We don't field calls every day from members hundreds or thousands of miles away asking about transferring into Columbus, Ohio," he said. "It's because they know Intel is coming."
A construction project of this size will employ plentiful craft workers including welders, ironworkers, laborers, equipment operators, pipefitters, millwrights, and dozens of other trades.
The news story suggests that many of the jobs offered will come with attractive compensation.
Including overtime, pay for skilled tradespeople could hit $125,000 annually, said Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus Building Trades Council.
When the two factories, known as fabs, open in 2025, the facility will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000.
At present, the Intel construction work is in its earliest phases as earthmovers reshape the 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of former farm and residential land being transformed into an industrial site.
