There were a lot of paid job sites back in the early days of the net. I specifically remembered Trabaho.com because it’s where I landed my very first job in 2000.

Today, it looks like only two paid job sites remain active — JobsDB and JobStreet. The fact that these two are part of regional job site may have helped them survived the paid world of online services.

Which of the two is better? Which one do you use more?

I’ve added the new poll on the sidebar for you to cast your vote or you can also share your comments below.

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In a report by Inquirer.net, only the Dell Pasay call center has been sold but leaving the Quezon City operations still intact. The amount of the sale was undisclosed but a former employee claims the unconfirmed amount to be around Php200 million.

Dell tech and customer support will still be provided by Teleperformance and some employees (management level) will be retained by the latter. Everyone will be asked to submit their resignation letter as announced last Friday, March 20, 2009.

The fate of most Dell call center employees in the Pasay operations is still unknown. Once they’ve officially resigned, they may be able to apply again for the same job over at Teleperformance.

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Based on the numerous feedback I get from regular folks in the IT circle, here are my top guesses:

• A lot of old classmates/schoolmates I heard that were employed to HP fresh from college says they have great salary packages. One fresh grad even got a car loan on his first year.
• While very few developers could get into Oracle Philippines because of the vertical industry they are in, people say they have very nice compensation package to retain their top employees.
• Canon Philippines has a ton of engineers and developers here in Manila working some stuff related to cameras, printers and the lot. While the pay is not really very high, developers get a chance to go on special projects in Japan ranging from several months to a couple of years. That’s the time when get the “pay bonus”.
• IBM Philippines was once considered as the top company to work for and has been competitive salaries and a very mobile workplace environment.
• Very little is known about Lakeside Technologies but when they put out an ad before looking for web developers, the starting salaries they were offering were very much higher than industry figures. I also had several former officemates and friends who used to work there and they confirmed the handsome pay. However, one commented that is “if you still want to have a personal life“. So okay, they pay you good and work you real hard.
• Trend Micro, Inc. has a number of top notch antivirus engineers working at their offices in Libis. An old classmate tells me the pay is good but the hours are really bad.
• HeadStrong Philippines. I used to work there before for several months so I have a fair idea of their compensation structure. However, friends that have recently worked there tells me the pay is good and the benefits are great (though not as great as it was 8 years ago). They have a fleet of private cars which will bring employees home if you work overtime (past 10PM).
• Novare Technologies. I know a number of top notch engineers/developers (geeks) are working there so the pay must be really good.
• Smart Communications has been very popular among employees for their extended month bonus. Last December 2006, employees were given up to 21-month bonus. Standard is only 13 months. That’s 8 months more.

Yahoo has just formally opened their office in the Philippines and since they are on GigaOm’s Top 10, they might also be the same here.

There are several other smaller companies that have very attractive compensation packages but I thought they might not be able to scale that once they grow much bigger. If you have some idea which tech companies I should include here, please do leave a comment. The ones I have here aren’t based on hard data so I might have listed some of them wrong too (which brings me, we should do an IT salary survey of sorts here).

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This according to a press release sent out yesterday:

The global Voluntary Resignation Package will be made available for employees worldwide, with the exception of direct labour and senior executives. The terms and conditions of the package are in accordance with local practices and legislation. The Voluntary Resignation Package will be open for application from March 1 until 1,000 employees have applied, closing at the latest May 31, 2009.

During 2009, Nokia will also grant short-term unpaid leaves and sabbaticals of, for example, one month, more freely where operations allow and business continuity is not jeopardized. Furthermore, during 2009 the company will also encourage employees not to “cash in” their holiday but to take their holiday as time off, as it is intended.

The Voluntary Resignation Packages is a nice way of saying “resign or we’ll put you on the redundancy program”. Not sure if any employee will bite this but if the package has a nice lump sum in it and a glowing recommendation letter, enterprising people might just grab it while it’s hot.

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The full copy of the letter can be found at AllThingsD. A section that outlines the pay cut is below:

We have decided to further variablize our cost structure by reducing base pay and some benefits across HP. My base pay will be reduced by 20 percent. The base pay of Executive Council members will be reduced by 15 percent. The base pay of other executives will be reduced by 10 percent. The base pay of all other exempt employees will be reduced by 5 percent. For non-exempt employees, base pay will be reduced by two-and-a-half percent.

Additional efficiencies, including changes to the US 401(K) plan and the share ownership plan, will also be implemented. Of course, the implementation of all of these actions is subject to compliance with local laws and regulations. Follow-up communications will detail the timing and the plans in your location.

So this looks like a pay cut for the entire global workforce. I guess people would opt for a 5% salary deduction rather than get laid off completely. No confirmation yet if people in the HP Makati office is also affected by the pay cut (though as far as I know it’s against labor code to do so).

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The site Inquirer.net will not be closing down, contrary to earlier rumors but will be consolidated with the operations of the print publication. Although the Inquirer.net team has not yet moved offices, the status of this consolidation is still “on hold”.

Several key people have already resigned from the team, including Editor-in-Chief JV Rufino and VP & Executive Editor Leo Magno, a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, the online advertising business model that Inquirer has been swimming on in the last decade didn’t really pan out. While operations grew and content creation expanded to web videos and a blog network, the ad money wasn’t enough to sustain the business. Some part-time bloggers in the Inquirer Blog Network were also asked to stop writing a few weeks back.

Inquirer.net used to be Inq7.net which is a joint venture between PDI and GMA 7 until the latter bolted off of the partnership to put up its own website, GMA-News.tv. Inquirer.net is the top online destination in the Philippines and this development could have a huge impact in the online publishing industry in the Philippines.

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Employees that were affected came from the SMS Account (where customers sent in SMS questions and agents quickly reply answers pulled from research and online searches).

The news was came out last Monday (February 9, 2009) where people in the Sta. Rosa site were informed that majority of the agents will be let go. One employee recounts what happened over at PinoyExchange:

Patay ang halos lahat ng teams sa SMS Acct… Kahapon 9 Feb 2009, Parang nagmistulang funeral parlour ang KGB Phils…. After our 1 hour break, bigla kaming pinag log out at pinapunta sa training room.. Doon maraming teams din kami sa loob

Bigla na lang sinabi sa amin na kailangan na daw kaming tanggalin sa trabaho meaning “TERMINATED” na kami lahat (ANG NATIRA LANG AY TEAMS 1-8 AT ANG TEAMS 9-39 TSUGI LAHAT INCLUDING THE TEAM LEADERS)..(Sorry correct me if Im wrong with the figures this are just based on those tsugi persons that I have talked to yesterday). Hindi daw nila inaasahan ang mangyayari pero kailangan na mag MASS LAY-OFF.

More reactions and explanations were posted there.

It looks like KGB was banking on projections that their SMS service would grow so they were aggressively hiring only to realize demand went down over the last quarter and a lot of employees were left without nothing to do on their shifts. However, seems like 600+ heads are too many for a simple overshoot of personnel management. Obviously, the global financial crisis is once again the culprit.

KGB provides services for incoming calls requesting information about directory assistance, movie showtimes, restaurant reviews, traffic, weather and other information with clients in the US and the UK.

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Chuck Mulloy
Intel Corporation

Santa Clara, California, Jan. 21, 2009 – Intel Corporation today disclosed plans to restructure some of its manufacturing operations and align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions. The company will consolidate and streamline some older capacity without impacting the deployment of new, leading-edge 45-nanometer and 32-nanometer manufacturing capacity.

The company plans to close two existing assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia and one in Cavite, Philippines, and will halt production at Fab 20 an older 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Ore. Additionally, wafer production operations will end at the D2 facility in Santa Clara, Calif.

The actions at the four sites, when combined with associated support functions, are expected to affect between 5,000 and 6,000 employees worldwide. However, not all employees will leave Intel; some may be offered positions at other facilities. The actions will take place between now and the end of 2009.

Here’s the copy of the statement for the Intel Philippines operation in Cavite:

Arlita Narag
Corporate Affairs
Intel Technology Philippines Inc
Gateway Business Park, Javalera
General Trias, Cavite

As announced by Intel Corporation today, the impact of the economic downturn on our business was more severe than we anticipated and the outlook is uncertain. As a result, we have decided to restructure some of our manufacturing operations by taking older capacity off line and closing five factories during the course of 2009. Included in this action will be the closure of two of our assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia; and the assembly test facility in Cavite. Two of our wafer fabrication facilities in the United States will also end production.

Our manufacturing operations in Cavite will cease this year. Approximately 1800 employees will be affected and will be offered a severance package and a range of transition services. We know this is a difficult time for our employees and their families and we will make available the best support systems to ease the transition.

We are deeply grateful for the strong support that the Philippine Government has extended to our operations in the country in the last 35 years. It has been key to our success.

Our Sales and Marketing organization will not be affected by this action. Our major social responsibility programs in the Philippines will also continue, particularly in the area of science and math education.

It’s possible all this consolidated operations will all go to the China plant. Not a good sign for the year. And to think, it’s only January.

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Allegedly, Epixtar suddenly closed its operations in the Philippines without properly informing and arranging severance packages of hundreds of its employees.

My source, who wants to remain anonymous, also added that they were not given any separation pay and found out that their SSS and PAG-IBIG contributions were deducted from their salary but were not remitted to the proper agencies. Salary loan amortization to Union Bank were not remitted since the November 20, 2008 pay-out.

It would seem that a new company, Amberbase Solutions, took over the operations along with more or less the 650+ employees (everything is the same, except the name of the company). Only about 10 people were not offered a new contract and escorted out of the building on the same day Amberbase took over.

No email or memo were sent out so everyone is confused and in the dark what really transpired, according to a source who wants to remain anonymous (and is now employed by Amberbase).

I did a little digging and found the domain amberbase.com was registered last November 19, 2008 and points to SkyINet, a local hosting provider. The website is still under construction as well so it checks out that Amberbase Solutions is a very new company. The WHOIS information is also private so we can’t shoot a quick email to verify this.

Epixtar filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection last October 7, 2005.

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After a series of calls and text messages, the program supervisor called me asking to verify an alleged layoff at Accenture Manila that day. The unofficial figure was 500 heads. I said I didn’t know where that came from — it could be from another source but I could call some people and verify it.

A call to my source from the inside verified the layoffs. My source immediately tells me “I know what this is all about” right after picking up the phone.

Apparently, the memo went out on the 14th stating that people from the Solutions Division will have to be let go starting on the 15th. The 500 figure is still unconfirmed but they it was a huge number.

The reason behind was that Accenture Manila has become overcrowded with project developers and consultants with no assignments or have prior projects that have been canceled or indefinitely put on hold.

This development may not be a big surprise as Accenture (like many other multinational companies in the country) has been doing some belt-tightening measures since last year.

Will update this breaking story as I get more information.

Update 1: Memos were sent out Wednesday night for employees to report to the Makati office the following day only to be surprised by a severance package and outplacing support greeting them as they arrive. Employees are very worried as people just disappear from their stations left and right.

Update 2: Employees that were let go ranged from regulars to management positions. They are given option to transfer to the Call Center Division if they wish so and if the skillsets are applicable. Those left out are given a severance package of 1 month’s salary for every year of service to the company.

Update 3: More job cuts are coming. The Country Managing Director sent a second notice to everyone on January 15. “All affected employees have been contacted via call, email invite and/or SMS. Only a few are still scheduled for notification in the succeeding days…. If you are approached by the media or anyone else with questions regarding the workforce actions today, please do not respond.” They are also arranging townhall meetings and people hour sessions. The 500 head count is confirmed and they’re shedding more people.

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Then, there’s the rumor that caught fire last Monday — about 10,000 contractors are affected by Google layoffs. According to an SEC filing, Google reported 20,123 employees by end of September 2008. However, the real number could actually be close to 30,000.

Google classifies the ~10,000 of the employees as temporary operational expenses or “workers”. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “There is no question that the number (of workers) is too high” {via}.

From a CNet article, Google spokeswoman Jane Penner vaguely confirmed that:

“We have 10,000, and we have had a plan in place for awhile to significantly reduce that number. This is something we’ve been thinking about for awhile–six or seven months. It predates the most acute phase of the (present economic) crisis.”

Just like any other publicly listed company these days, Google shares have been sliding down in the last 6 months — hitting an all-year low of of $247 (from a high of $724.80).

Google was able to reach 3rd quarter earnings expectations by trimming operational expenses. This could have included ending or not renewing contract workers.

But even before this, news of cutting cost across all Google offices have been making the rounds:

• Renting out extra office spaces in the Google New York office.
• Shutting down in-house cafes in the Google Plex.
• Limiting employee guests to two free meals a month and no more bringing home of dinner food.
• Shutting down some beta products and services like Lively, SearchMash, etc. and re-distributing human resources.

There’s also a report by Premium AdSense Publishers and AdWords Advertisers that this year’s Christmas gift from Google will be more modest — a 2GB USB flash drive.

Google has been really good to project to the public that they’re crisis-proof. Not sure how long they can handle it well though.

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I think he might have been misunderstood in his statements where he said he’s going to take some of the outsource jobs back to America.

• What Obama might do is give some tax breaks or tax incentives for companies if they retain employees in the US. That way, US companies might be persuaded to keep jobs in America rather than offshore.
• The ratio between the salary of a call center employee in the US compared to the Philippines is in the magnitude of 6 to 10 times. So for every call center employee replaced in the US, at least 6 new hires are made here. I can’t imagine any sort of tax incentive that can offset that.
• Companies tend to outsource the entry-level to mid-level employees and retain the top managers and executives in the US. If there are shifts in this level, this is mostly with the offices in India where they still maintain the biggest operation.
• China is the biggest source of blue collar jobs for American companies. Most of the products of the big companies come from China — P&G, Nestle, Apple, Dell, etc.
• Obama didn’t specifically say it would the call center industry. He might have also meant the manufacturing or the blue collar jobs. There are around 100,000 call center employees in the Philippines (outsourced by the US, Canada and Europe). Compare that to the millions of laborers outsourced from China.

I think it would be safe to say that there won’t be any hiring issues for call centers in the Philippines once the Obama administration kicks in.

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In an email sent by Accenture Chairman & CEO Bill Green to all employees, he says that the company is very liquid and they are doing their best to keep it that way so there’s nothing worry about.

That doesn’t mean though that they wouldn’t do some cost-cutting here and there.

• Security detail has been cut by 50%. There used to be one roving guard for every floor and now there’s only one for every 3 floors. Same goes with City Service.
• Out of country assignments by developers have been postponed or canceled. Offshore clients must have made some adjustments.
• Free flowing juice and iced tea have been pulled off the shelves. Only the coffee machine remains.
• Probationary employees have been let go. Though this is within protocol, the volume of people who don’t make it as regular employees after 6 months has increased dramatically.
• Company Christmas Party has been canceled. I am told the Christmas Party is pushing thru.

Accenture’s BPO and call center divisions are growing strong. It’s just the solutions division that’s having problems getting new projects. Apparently, this isn’t an isolated case as competing firm HeadStrong is also letting go of several project consultants and developers starting this November.

Accenture operates about 9 offices in the Philippines, eight of them in Metro Manila and one in Cebu which is a call center.

Update: Been receiving several privates emails and confirmations from people I personally know inside Accenture. One of them is about the Christmas Party pushing thru. Some of the statements needs to be qualified too as they could be taken out fo context. Again, I’ve highlighted several times that Accenture is very liquid and some of these belt-tightening could be just a knee-jerk reaction to the financial crisis.

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These are just the big named companies. Start-ups are also doing the same thing. TC has a tracker here.

Symantec – 880
Electronic Arts – 600
Motorola – 3,000
Xerox Corp – 3,000
Dell – 8,900
Yahoo -1,500
Texas Instruments – 650
Cisco Systems – 129
eBay – 1,500
Micron Technology – 1,500
Sony Ericsson – 450
Nvidia – 360
NXP semiconductors – 4,500

Social networking Hi5 made 15 job cuts, Adbrite trimmed down by 40, Mahalo dropped 6, and Kevin Rose’s Revision3 (producer of Diggnation, Tekzilla) dropped 4 shows and 10 people.

What’s interesting is that tech companies based in the Philippines seemed unaffected by all these. In fact, Headstrong (my former employer), is expanding with a recent announcement of hiring 150 fresh graduates. Accenture is not slowing down either.

Have not heard of any tech job cuts locally or any start-ups closing down. Correct me if I’m wrong but it looks like the IT sector in the country is doing good despite the financial crisis (and I thought it’s just the call centers).

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A friend, who works in one of the top call centers in the Philippines, revealed they’ve been doing rapid expansion and is opening up at least 5 more locations around the country from this year to next year. There’s one in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, then in Cebu, the newly built Greenbelt 5, the UP Science Center in Q.C., and San Lazaro, Manila.

If that’s any indication, I’d say the BPO industry in the Philippines is still growing despite the recession. But how did that happened?

My friend explains that because of the financial crisis in the US, there were a lot of job cuts going around. These job cuts are cost-cutting measures — no new hires in the US; all replacements are made in somewhere else where it’s cheaper (including) the Philippines.

It makes sense actually — for every seat you drop in the US, you can get as much as 4 to 5 new seats in the Philippines at the same cost.

The industry will still survive. It’s just a matter of resource allocation and cost-reduction. While the Philippines may not be immune to the same economic crisis, it has proven still that our labor force is cost-effective.

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For the meantime, here’s what a contact of a friend told me about Intel’s colorful past and possible future in the Philippines.

• Several locations have been considered but the NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips Semiconductors) plant in Cabuyao, Laguna is the most likely candidate. NXP laid-off over 400 workers back in March 2007 from their Cabuyao plant and moved about 200 employees to their newer Calamba station. Intel could be buying/leasing this Cabuyao plant from NXP.
• Attrition rate is somewhere between 7-10% in the Cavite plant and management has put hiring on hold. Employee count plateaued at a high of 6,500 to a current low of around 1,500. This is partly due to the Flash division spunned off (now Numonyx, founded March 31, 2008 by Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners) and some engineers moving over to the new company.
• Severance packages were offered but still uncertain. The least Intel Philippines could offer is 3 months salary, based on previous severance packages it offered.
• Hardware/CPU pilferage is a normal occurrence not unique to Intel. Almost all plants suffer the same fate — Cypress, Maxim, Fujitsu, Hitachi — it just happens (only in the Philippines?).
• The Merom (Core 2 for laptops) and Penryn (mobileCore 2 Duo) chips were manufactured out of the Cavite plant. Since both are based on the 45 nm process, it’s unlikely this fab will be phased out.
• Ever since the move from the Makati plant to the Cavite plant, only a foreigner holds the position of General Manager. This was due to a management issue that led Intel into far-flung Trece Martires instead of the Laguna Technopark.

Let’s face it, it’s now cheaper to operate a plant in Malaysia, Vietnam and China than in the Philippines – high cost of fuel, high inflation rates, high power rates and not so cheap labor cost. Besides, exemption from corporate income tax is only up to eight years for companies operating in special economic zones like the Laguna Technopark.

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In a recent conference call, Infonxx co-founder and CEO Robert Pines, explained the changes in their company name and their goal to be the number 1 directory assistance service worldwide.

What caught my attention was why they changed their name to KGB. According to a source, a lot of people often mistakenly pronounce Infonxx as “in-fonks” instead of the “info-n-x-x”.

The new name, KGB, was chosen partly because it’s “intriguing” just like the Russian intellegence agency it was named after.

KGB (Infonxx) is a US call center company specializing in directory assistance with offices here in Makati (RCBC Tower) and Sta. Rosa, Laguna. They’re the leading directory assistance service in the UK and also plans to enter other markets such as the Philippines and other Asian countries.

To learn more about Pines and the success of Infonxx in United Kingdom, check out this 2003 story from the Telegraph UK.

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