World at work: the electronics industry.

T he electronics industry employs millions of workers throughout the world and plays a significant role in the structure of the world’s economy. Many multinational electronics industries retain their capital intensive operations in home countries, but locate their labour intensive operations in newly industrialising countries, because of the lower cost of labour and attractive financial and infrastructural incentives offered. In many developing and newly industrialising countries, the industry is a major contributor to employment and national economic growth. The electronics industry is diverse with a wide spectrum of processes. Its sectors include semiconductor wafer fabrication, manufacture of printed circuit boards, the assembly of semiconductor devices and printed circuit boards, and assembly of the final electronic products. There are also many supporting industries that produce materials and components necessary to make the final product. These include those which manufacture metal and plastic parts, electrical parts such as storage media for hard disks, precision motors to run drives, transformers, switches, liquid crystal displays, and other electronic components. In general, the processes in the electronics industry can be viewed as a series of work leading to the final product (table 1):