Intel Lays Off 300 in Bay Area

According to new WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act notices filed on Wednesday, Santa Clara-based Intel is to lay off over 2,200 jobs in four states, with California alone set to lose over 300.

According to new federal WARN notices and EDD filings, three major Bay Area companies lost 796 employees within the last few days, delivering yet another major economic blow to the region.

The San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, still reeling after tens of thousands of job cuts in 2022 and 2023 respectively, looked forward to a better 2024, with less job cuts, a better economy, and new growth industries such as AI helping revitalize the area. However, a little more than a few months into the new year, and 2024 is currently on pace to be just as bad as previous years in the Bay area. Multiple tech companies have already announced the firings of thousands of employees, with some companies getting rid of close to 2,000 employees in a single day. It also bled outside the tech sector, as Levi Strauss announced between 10-15% of their workforce, mostly in San Francisco, are to be fired this year. In February, firing continued, affecting tech firm Okta, who let go of 7% of their staff in San Francisco, Cisco with 4,000 job cuts, and the online form-filler company DocuSign, who laid off around 6% of their workforce, or 400 people in total.

The entire region also saw jobs in total decline, with San Francisco losing 21,000 positions in the first 3 months of 2024. In April, Apple also joined the list, who fired over 600 employees in early April in their first post-COVID layoff. While there have been some layoffs reported here and there since then, the last several months have been quiet, with tech layoffs in the Bay Area not coming in any more mass firings. However, this changed on Wednesday following new of Intel’s planned cuts.

According to the WARN notices, Oregon will face the most layoffs, with 1,300 employees being let go. In addition, 385 employees in Arizona, 319 employees in California, and 251 in Texas will also be fired. Overall, this is part of Intel’s August plan to cut around 15,000 jobs and reduce costs by around $10 billion. While around 7,500 were bought out by mid-September, it was not enough to wane off layoffs.

“As part of the broad-based cost savings plan we announced in August, we are making the hard but necessary decisions to reduce the size of our workforce. These are the most difficult decisions we ever make, and we are treating people with care and respect,” said Intel in a statement. “These changes support our strategy to become a leaner, simpler and more agile company as we position Intel for long-term sustainable growth.”

For California, the layoffs at Intel sites in San Jose and Folsom are just the latest mass tech layoffs in California this year, albeit with fewer happening this year compared to the post-Covid years of 2022 and 2023.

“Tech layoffs in California this year have been fewer and fewer, thanks in a large part to AI booming and companies finally scaling-back from COVID hirings, ” said Julie Ochs, a San Jose-based headhunter and hiring specialist told the Globe on Wednesday. “But as we’ve seen, these companies aren’t out of the woods yet. Intel is sadly just the latest this happened too. Hopefully there won’t be many more in California, but with cost-cutting conscious companies out there, it’s not exactly a sure thing.”

Employees are expected to be laid off by November 15th.