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Operating a global business is a complex
issue. Intel has a history of investing in
locations where we have growing markets
and available local talent. We have operated
on a worldwide basis for nearly 35 years
and currently have facilities and offices in
more than 45 countries.
To best serve our growing markets and maintain our
leadership in the technology industry, we must embrace the
opportunities offered by global markets. In 2003, 70% of our
sales resulted from geographies outside of the Americas.
While about 60% of our workforce is in the United States,
we recognize that to better serve our customer base, we will
need to grow globally, especially in emerging markets such
as China, India and Russia.
Our goal is to maintain a relatively stable level of employment
in the U.S. while we expand globally. In the past two years, we
have invested more than $8 billion in our U.S. manufacturing
capacity, maintaining four of our five most advanced manufacturing
facilities in the U.S.
We do not pursue a strategy of exporting jobs. The bulk of
the reduction in U.S. employment over the last few years has
come from attrition and shrinking our U.S. operations to
reflect the lower revenue coming from that geography. Those
jobs are gone; they have not been sent overseas.
There have been exceptions, however. By the end of 2003,
we had moved fewer than 500 jobs — about 1% of our U.S.
workforce — to other countries. We understand that although
these numbers are low, they nonetheless represent difficult
situations for those affected. Our redeployment program
has helped many individuals find jobs internally; others have
received generous packages upon leaving the company.
We recognize that the concern in the U.S. is the long-term
ability to stay competitive in an increasingly intense global marketplace.
Since money and jobs move to the areas of highest
productivity, as a country, the U.S. needs to do everything possible
to ensure that its workforce is the most productive that it can be.
We work hard in every geography to improve education,
especially math and science education, and we continue to
invest heavily in research and development, even during an
economic downturn. We consistently share our views with
government representatives, emphasizing the need to make
it as easy as possible to do business through investment
incentives and other similar initiatives.
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