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A panel of three Syracuse University professors raised concerns surrounding the new Micron plant near Syracuse, like income inequality and workforce readiness, at a Monday afternoon panel hosted by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

At the event, titled Micron in Central New York: What’s At Stake For Education and the Workforce, Maxwell professors Yingyi Ma, Stuart Rosenthal and Alexander Rothenberg served as panelists. Monday’s event was the first of a series discussing Micron’s potential impact in the area, hosted by the Maxwell’s Center for Policy Research.

Panelists pointed to a lack of trained workers to fill STEM-related jobs and issues with the U.S. education system’s resources. Micron, which announced in October it would construct a new plant in Clay, New York, in 2024, will bring an estimated 50,000 jobs to the area.

Ma, a professor of sociology, said the U.S. is ill-prepared for the demands of the incoming semiconductor industry.

“Few American students enter the STEM fields to start with, and among the STEM fields, the most popular fields are not computer science or electrical engineering,” Ma said.

She pointed to a current talent shortage in the U.S. in engineering and computer science— fields directly associated with the semiconductor industry. Ma identified segregation within school systems and the low number of American students who receive graduate degrees in the fields as contributing factors to the shortage.

“60% of American doctoral degrees go to international students, but American immigration policy is not supportive to keeping these students in the country,” Ma said. “American immigration policies are not helpful to retain the international talent.”

Rothenberg, an assistant professor of economics in Maxwell, projected that Micron’s direct employment of around 9,000 workers and indirect creation of an estimated 41,000 jobs will increase the city employment level by around 17%.

The estimated employment multiplier — the measure of how many additional employment opportunities will occur as a result of Micron’s direct employment opportunities — for Micron’s presence in the central New York area is around three times the national average, Rothenberg said.

Rothenberg said this prediction is largely due to expectations that the Micron investment will be able to increase local employment and the demand for locally-produced services.

“Micron workers are going to shop at retail establishments, they’re going to buy groceries, they’re going to get haircuts, they’ll go to dinner,” Rothenberg said. “All of these activities are going to generate increased demand for labor and indirectly free jobs.”

Rosenthal, Maxwell’s advisory board professor of economics, raised another concern that the jobs the Micron plant brings could lead to income inequality, saying that a set of highly-paid workers living in the downtown area could drive up property values and local rents.

He said the effects could “make life challenging” for lower-income families who currently live in the Syracuse city center. Pointing to Syracuse’s already high poverty rates, Ma added that where Micron employees choose to live will largely determine the potential effects of income inequality in the city.

“The challenge with the increasing number of high-paying jobs is, ‘how can we spill over that high paying jobs to medium paying so that our poverty rate can be alleviated?’” Ma said. “That could be the direction of our community, so that we can really have the potential to spread prosperity rather than exacerbating the divide.”

Rosenthal also identified housing affordability in the city as a concern, and emphasized the importance of thinking ahead and planning in order to avoid displacement of current residents.

“There is risk that housing prices could go up in the city center housing,” Rosenthal said. “There is a need to think proactively about how to address the housing needs for present lower income residents in the community.”

Despite the concerns and issues that come along with the new plant, the panelists acknowledged the positive qualities that Syracuse has, including a low cost of living, improving climate due to global warming, green space and nearby colleges.

“There are some absolutely outstanding opportunities depending on what a family might be seeking in this area that are competitive at the New York state level,” Rosenthal said.

The next panel in the series in the fall 2023 semester will focus on Micron’s impact on housing accessibility in the area.

Published on April 25, 2023 at 12:50 am

Contact Samantha: saolande@syr.edu