Intel says it won't slash workforce

HAVING HANDED ABOUT 20,000 employees their pink slips back in 2006, Intel reckons it won't need to make any serious workforce cuts now, despite the current economic crisis.

Intel Spinner Tom Beermann said Chipzilla wouldn't make any "specific projections" about the size of its workforce. But, "The restructuring we did in 2006 has put us in a good position to weather the current economic environment," he claimed.

Back in 2006, Intel was forced to dramatically cull staff after losing market share to its smaller rival AMD, but Chipzilla seems to be having the last laugh now, being one of just a few firms not sending its employees to the dole office in droves. The 2006 slash and burn purportedly helped Intel up its profits by 38 per cent in 2007, after a 42 per cent slump the previous year.

But despite saying it won't need to cut back its staff this time round, it's not all plain sailing for the chip monster. In a preview to its full earnings report due on January 15th, Intel admitted Q4 sales had plunged some 23 per cent, lower than previously predicted by company analysts.

The firm also only managed to pull in $999.5 million in profits during the last quarter of 2008 as computer sales dwindled, the first time Chipzilla's quarterly net income has fallen below the $1 billion mark since 2003.

The company's share price also failed to deliver to investors in 2008, falling in value some 45 per cent.

But the firm's current 83,500 workers should remain fairly safe in their fab jobs and little grey cubicles for a while to come, with Intel promising to push forward and expand into new industries and technologies even during the bleak economic winter. µ