6,000 Intel job cuts planned this year

Chip giant Intel is cut 6,000 jobs and close four facilities in a restructuring effort affecting employees worldwide.

Intel plans to close two assembly and test facilities - one in Penang, Malaysia, and another in Cavite, the Philippines. It will also stop production at two wafer-production plants - Fab 20, an older 200mm wafer fabrication plant in Hillsboro, Oregon, and D2, a facility in Santa Clara, California.

The changes will affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees worldwide, Intel said. Not all those employees will lose their jobs, however, as Intel plans to offer some of them positions at other facilities, the company said.

Intel will gradually close the facilities between now and the end of 2009, it said. The closures are designed to "align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions", the company said.

Like many technology companies, Intel has been hit hard by the US recession, which also has affected the global economy. For its fourth quarter ended December 27, 2008, Intel saw its profit plunge 90 percent from a year earlier, falling short of Wall Street estimates.