Oregon – Intel Corp. is getting ready to fire more than 500 workers in Oregon. This is a big step in its plan to restructure the corporation and reshaping its future. The cuts, which will start on July 15, are part of a bigger plan that could affect about 20% of Intel’s global staff in the long run.
A regulatory filing says that 529 jobs will be permanently cut at Intel’s factories in Aloha and Hillsboro. These sites are critical to Intel’s operations, with Hillsboro—located just outside of Portland—serving as a hub for the company’s factories and research divisions. Intel is also the city’s biggest private employment, thus this news is a big deal for the local economy.
This wave of layoffs comes after Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, made several strategic adjustments. He took over the company during a time when it was under a lot of pressure to turn around its recent slide. Intel used to be the most powerful company in the semiconductor sector, but it has had to deal with more and more competition and has had trouble keeping up with the fast speed of progress in chip and AI technologies. Competitors like Nvidia have moved ahead in these areas.
Read also: Oregon braces for major Medicaid changes as new federal rules trigger costly eligibility checks
Tan started a company-wide effort to decrease costs in April in order to streamline processes and give Intel back its competitive edge. Intel hasn’t given official numbers on how many people may lose their jobs around the world, but people who are aware of the plan say that more than one-fifth of the company’s workers may be affected.
Intel said in a public statement that the job layoffs in Oregon are part of a larger plan to make the company “leaner, faster, and more efficient.” The organization stressed that the decision was taken after a thorough evaluation of future needs and chances for expansion.
“Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution,” the Santa Clara, California-based company said, Bloomberg reported. “We are making these decisions based on careful consideration of what’s needed to position our business for the future, and we will treat people with care and respect as we complete this important work.”
As Intel starts this phase of reorganization, people will be interested in how the job layoffs will affect the Hillsboro community as a whole and how the business hopes to get its technology back on track. Intel has a long history in Oregon’s tech industry, so people in the industry, workers, and local government will all be watching closely what the company does next.
