REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corp planned to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, shifts focus to faster-growing areas, a company spokesman said on Friday. The announcement, equivalent to over 5,000 positions, comes a day after Intel posted a fourth-quarter earnings report that did little to dispel concerns about a slowing PC industry.
"This is part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs," spokesman Chris Kraeuter said.
The job reductions may include retirements, voluntary programs and other options, Kraeuter said, adding that Intel's typical annual attrition worldwide is about 4 percent. He declined to say whether details of the changes had been announced internally.
On a conference call with analysts on Thursday after the earnings release, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith alluded to a reduction in employment this year and said that Intel would increase investments in areas such as data center technology, low-power chips and tablets.
Intel dominates the PC chip industry, but it has been slow to adapt its processors for smartphones and tablets, markets now dominated by rivals such as Qualcomm Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
The chipmaker is also not the only tech company to trim its workforce because of slowing demand for PCs since Apple's iPad started to cut into demand for laptops in 2010. Hewlett-Packard Co is in the midst of a years-long internal restructuring that would ultimately see it shed 34,000 jobs, or 11 percent of its workforce, through fiscal 2014. Dell succeeded last year in taking itself off public markets, allowing CEO and founder Michael Dell to restructure away from Wall Street's scrutiny. That overhaul is expected to encompass layoffs.
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