From its second quarter peak, until June 30, Intel ($INTC) slashed jobs globally as it prepared to divest its modem business to Apple in a $1 billion deal. But it made its deepest cuts in China.
Our first chart tracks all Intel job postings globally - the company reduced by nearly 50% the job postings it had online from mid-April until the end of the second quarter, according to data.
However, it has also been slashing job postings in China, which comes amid an ongoing and escalating war of words between Presidents Donald J. Trump and Xi Jinping, that ratcheted up to a new level this week with threats of further hikes to tariffs.
The US-China trade war has already come home to roost with the largest tech companies in the US, which have pulled back from hiring in China amid tariff uncertainty, coupled with rising regulatory concerns that accompany partnering with leading Chinese firms.
After scaling up nicely through the first quarter of the year, Beijing-based job postings plunged for Intel, falling from a peak of 69, to less than one-third of that.
It comes in a year, for Intel, where it has failed to match market benchmarks for stock performance (shares are in the red both year-to-date and for the trailing 12-month-period), but still after years of acceleration on the Nasdaq - and pushing shares toward post-crisis highs. Next, Intel - which has been historically a major supplier to Huawei ($PRIVATE:HUAWEI), the Chinese technology company that has come under especially great pressure from US authorities - will have to navigate the smartphone maker's deteriorating relationship with America, which will potentially create additional collateral damage for its business. And its business in China appears to be grinding to a virtual halt.
Our final chart highlights how the trade war is coming home to roost in China - in tracking Intel's job postings seeking engineers in Beijing and Shanghai - and although job postings are down nearly 50% globally, they have fallen 75% for this category.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.