Intel this month officially began to cut down its workforce in the U.S. and other countries, thus revealing actual numbers of positions to be cut. The Oregonian reports that the company will cut as many as 2,392 positions in Oregon and around 4,000 positions across its American operations, including Arizona, California, and Texas.
To put the 2,392 number into context, Intel is the largest employer in Oregon with around 20,000 of workers there. 2,392 is around 12% of the workforce, which is a lower end of layoff expectations, yet 2,400 is still a lot of people. The Oregon reduction rose sharply from an initial count of around 500 to a revised figure of 2,392, making it one of the largest layoffs in the state’s history. Intel began reducing staff earlier in the week but confirmed the larger number by Friday evening through a filing with Oregon state authorities.
Intel's Oregon operations have already seen 3,000 jobs lost over the past year through earlier buyouts and dismissals. This time around, Intel does not offer voluntarily retirement or buyouts, it indeed lays off personnel in Aloha (192) and Hillsboro (2,200).
Although Intel officially says that it is trying to get rid of mid-level managers to flatten the organization and focus on engineers, the list of positions that Intel is cutting is led by module equipment technicians (325), module development engineers (302), module engineers (126), and process integration development engineers (88). In fact, based on the Oregon WARN filing, a total of 190 employees with 'Manager' in their job titles (8% of personnel being laid off) were included among those laid off by Intel. These comprised various software, hardware, and operational management roles across the affected sites.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Intel began to cut-down its workforce in Israel. Those affected included mid-level managers (e.g., team leaders), first-line supervisors, and technicians from the Remote Operations Center (ROC). According to a media report, the supervisors oversee shift operations and sit one or two tiers above production workers, so their roles are phased out as part of the company's intention to flatten the organization. Intel is also laying off ROC technicians, who remotely monitor and control fab tools, manage workflows, and detect issues. Their roles are being automated as part of a global move to cut manual oversight in chip production. It is reasonable to assume that something similar is happening in the U.S.
Interestingly, Intel is implementing a new approach to workforce reductions, allowing individual departments to decide how to meet financial goals rather than announcing large, centralized cuts. This decentralized process has led to ongoing job losses across the company, with marketing functions being outsourced to Accenture and the automotive division completely shut down.
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