Foxconn forces Wisconsin to confront acute shortage of automation-age tech workers
Workers at a Foxconn factory in Shenzen, China assemble electronic products in May 2010.(Photo: Getty Images photo) If Foxconn Technology Corp. builds a multibillion-dollar “smart factory” in southeastern Wisconsin, it could mean the equivalent of creating an industrial complex not seen since the heydays of A.O. Smith and Allis-Chalmers. At their peak in the last century, each of the legendary Milwaukee-area industrial behemoths employed 10,000 workers or more. Neither of their campuses exist any longer. And neither do the sort of rank-and-file lunch pail jobs that those titans once championed. Foxconn is expected to require troops of high-end systems engineers who can operate robots, artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art automation systems. If a Foxconn deal moves ahead, the region would need to move with Manhattan Project-like urgency to mount a come-from-behind retraining and…
Link to Full Article: Foxconn forces Wisconsin to confront acute shortage of automation-age tech workers
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