Intel will lay off 15,000 employees, or roughly 15 percent of its staff.
“Simply put, we must align our cost structure with our new operating model and fundamentally change the way we operate,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger wrote in a new note to employees. “Our revenues have not grown as expected—and we’ve yet to fully benefit from powerful trends, like AI. Our costs are too high, our margins are too low. We need bolder actions to address both—particularly given our financial results and outlook for the second half of 2024, which is tougher than previously expected.”
Intel will also aim to reduce its operational costs, shave down its teams’ portfolios, and do its best to reduce costs. It’ll also suspend its stock dividend. “I have no illusions that the path in front of us will be easy. You shouldn’t either,” Gelsinger added. “This is a tough day for all of us and there will be more tough days ahead. But as difficult as all of this is, we are making the changes necessary to build on our progress and usher in a new era of growth.”
The tech unemployment rate has fluctuated over the past few months. “Despite pockets of growth, the recent data indicates a degree of downward pressure on tech employment,“ Tim Herbert, chief research officer of CompTIA, wrote in a statement accompanying its June analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. “A combination of factors, including AI FOMO, likely contributes to segments of employers taking a wait and see approach with tech hiring.”
While layoffs are always scary, certain tech specializations have seen increases in job postings throughout 2024, including:
- Data scientists
- Database administrators
- Software developers
- Web developers
- Network architects
- Tech support specialists
Whatever the state of the market, companies everywhere still need highly specialized tech talent for a range of tasks, from building websites to training the next generation of AI models.
