Intel Israel hiring 1,500 as parent company lays off staff

Intel Israel is already one of the country's largest employers and means to hire 1,500 workers by the end of 2007, CEO Alex Kornhauser said yesterday.

The company has already hired 1,000 workers so far this year, despite the parent company's efforts to make widespread personnel cutbacks elsewhere.

Most hiring will focus on the research and development centers in Haifa, Yakum and Kiryat Gat, according to Kornhauser. The latter center is planned to start operation in 2008.

The parent Intel recently announced it would fire 10,500 employees around the world as it restructures. The company had not mentioned Israel, but the speculation was that similar cuts would be made across the board, of 10 percent of each country's work force.

That would have meant a loss of 700 jobs in Israel.

Intel Israel chose not to comment on the speculation. Kornhauser, who rarely talks about numbers, supplied the figures to TheMarker that indicate Intel Israel's plans to continue hiring employees.

Regarding reorganization on the local level, he said: "As for the number thrown about by the media, 700 layoffs, we never stipulated this number, and I don't want to specify numbers, but can say that the number is significantly smaller.

Reorganization in the country will be reflected in the support field, but this, too, will be done more by the personnel we have.