According to a report from Labor Finders, about 1 in 10 Americans working in construction are women. Boise’s Micron wants to change that. And the federal government is taking the lead.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced in May the creation of the CHIPS Women in Construction Framework, an initiative that aims to double the number of women working in construction over the next decade, an ambitious but not entirely unlikely goal.
“Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, but remain vastly underrepresented in industries like construction, which need more skilled workers to fill these high-paying jobs,” Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said in a news release.
Micron has voluntarily committed to the framework: working with contractors, unions and others to increase the participation of women and economically disadvantaged people in construction. Intel has that too.
After all, the companies will need a significant amount of construction labor to realize their plans to support domestic semiconductor production over the next decade.
‘One untapped resource is women’
The framework to recruit more women was announced about a week after the Biden administration revealed that Micron would receive $6.1 billion in subsidies to help pay for its chip factories in Boise and New York state. The new factories, short for semiconductor manufacturing, are expected to generate more than 9,000 construction jobs between the two projects.
At its peak, Micron expects to have about 4,500 construction workers at the site of its $15 billion factory in Southeast Boise, said Heather Baldwin, vice president of purchasing at Micron.
Micron is Idaho’s largest for-profit employer, with more than 5,000 employees, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. The company has several factories and related activities abroad. Micron says it employs 44,000 people worldwide.
In fact, the company expects to have so many employees that it plans to add a cafeteria.
“If you were to fly there recently and see the location recently, you would see that it is a hive of activity there,” Baldwin told the Idaho Statesman in a Zoom call. “We need more people going into the construction industry and working in the construction industry to support all that growth. And an untapped resource is women.”
Micron broke ground on its headquarters campus in late 2022. Wayne Hammon, CEO of the Idaho Associated General Contractors, previously told the Statesman that hundreds of employees assigned to projects in Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere would move to Idaho to work on construction. project. Still, industry experts expect a shortage. Major projects in the Treasure Valley, such as Micron’s expansion, have taken up such a large percentage of the state’s construction and trade workforce that developers say the shortage could hinder other projects, such as new apartment complexes and commercial buildings in downtown Boise.
Micron is committed to reducing barriers to entry
To encourage more women to join the male-dominated workforce, Micron aims to break down traditional barriers to entry.
“Some of the things we will be working on with the community, the CHIPS program office, contractors and others in the industry are: How do we get more women interested in the construction industry? And how do we get them to work to support not only us, but Idaho in general?” said Baldwin.
She said the jobs are sometimes unionized, sometimes not, but they pay well and often come with apprenticeships and other training. She deferred a question about how much construction workers at Micron’s site could earn to the contractors. But economist Jan Roeser of the Idaho Department of Labor previously told the Statesman that construction workers in Idaho saw one of the largest hourly wage increases in 2023.
However, that has not alleviated the labor shortage.
“A lot of people left the construction industry (during the pandemic) and did something else,” Roeser said. “And many young people don’t think about construction. They’re thinking about healthcare because there’s a lot of information out there about the healthcare industry being recession-proof. Construction is more seasonal.”
Baldwin said while some construction jobs are temporary, such as for a period of 10 or 12 months, other jobs can last for years. And because building a factory is a bit unique in that it is done in several phases and then requires ongoing maintenance, there is a pool of trade jobs that become semi-permanent, she said. As technology evolves, equipment is moved or sold and new parts are installed. This involves electricians, pipe layers and many other professionals.
Working on solutions for childcare
Part of Micron’s expansion in Boise includes a child care center, which the company broke ground about a year ago. Micron said it would help remove barriers to entry into the labor market and ease the transition for workers, especially mothers.
But the child care center is only for Micron employees, Baldwin said, and would not be accessible to construction workers at the plant site.
“Childcare is a barrier for many parents,” says Baldwin. “We are working with the state, community organizations, contractors and the unions to find out if there are women who want to do internships, and if the union is not yet offering childcare – can we come up with something to help them? ?”
‘Many different angles’ to recruit more women
Baldwin said discussions are ongoing about what else Micron can do to break down barriers and recruit more women and economically disadvantaged people into construction.
Baldwin mentioned setting up networking or leadership groups for women, and creating workplaces where women can feel safe. The framework asks companies to commit to maintaining healthy, safe and respectful workplaces that prevent and address harassment, discrimination, retaliation and violence through workplace training, policies and practices.
And there are other things like making sure there are women’s toilets on construction sites and that there are safety helmets and harnesses to suit everyone.
Baldwin added that there is a misconception and fear that construction always involves hard labor. She said many trade jobs aren’t like that.
Although only about 10% of construction workers in the U.S. are women, many do tasks that don’t require physical labor, according to the Labor Finders report. About 40% of women in the sector hold management and office positions. Only 2% work in production, transport and moving materials.
“There are a lot of different angles we’ll take,” Baldwin said. “We really need to increase all types of people going into the construction industry. The work we will do with women will impact other groups directly and in a very positive way. It’s quite exciting to think about the difference we can make.”
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