The news that Intel is looking to cut up to 195 jobs from its Irish workforce has likely been met with a mixed reaction.
For the politicians and employment agencies, just under 5 per cent of the workforce here feels like getting off lightly when the company is expected to slice 20 per cent of its global staff.
For staff, however, there will be an anxious few weeks as they await news of exactly where the cuts will fall and if they will be one of the unlucky ones to leave the company by September.
The numbers are a worst-case scenario by all accounts. These days, departments are global, so should more jobs be lost from the US or Asia, for example, then the Irish workforce may be spared a little more.
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But that will be cold comfort to Intel’s workers, who are facing yet another period of uncertainty so soon after last year’s round of job cuts.
[ Intel to seek almost 200 mandatory redundancies at Leixlip plantOpens in new window ]
Tech has become an uncertain place to work. But it is no different from any industry, at the mercy of markets and the whims of innovation. Fail to keep up, or falter at all, and even the giants among them can find their business in a precarious position.
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That doesn’t mean it will last forever, though. New chief executive Lip-Bu Tan has been shaking things up to rebuild Intel into an innovative company that can compete alongside rivals Nvidia and Arm.
That will mean some pain in the short term as he brings in some unpopular changes, from job cuts and executive shuffles to forcing staff to return to the office in person four days a week. But if Mr Tan can make a success of it, then for Intel’s remaining staff at least, it might be worth it in the long run.
