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RIO RANCHO — As dawn approached this morning, workers changing shifts at the Intel Corp. microchip plant in Rio Rancho weren't sure what the future held, and whether they would still have a job come August.

Asked if they expected to be among the more than 1,000 people Intel said Tuesday it intends to lay off, several workers, who declined to be identified, just shrugged.

One said "probably" and walked away.

It's that uncertainty that also has some Rio Rancho officials mourning over the prospects of losing 1,000 workers from a company that helped launch the City of Vision, and in the process helped turn a patch of desert into New Mexico's third-largest city.

"This is a disappointment, not only to the city and state, but specifically this is a disappointment to a person who loves this community that may have to relocate elsewhere," Rio Rancho Mayor Kevin Jackson said this morning. "My heart goes out to those people."

Intel Corp. announced late Tuesday that it plans to cut more than 1,000 jobs at its Rio Rancho facility as it prepares to end production of an older silicon wafer technology made in its Fab 11 unit. Intel employs 4,700 workers in Rio Rancho.

The 200-millimeter wafers will no longer be made at Fab 11 by the end of August.

While the news seems fresh, the company let local officials know it was coming, Jackson said.

"Intel warned of this several months ago that they were going to have this type of layoff and redeployment," Jackson said.

Liz Shipley, Intel's communications manager for New Mexico, this morning said the job reduction will be implemented throughout the site, and won't be limited to employees who work in Fab 11.

Shipley said the company in coming months will begin to assess the skills the company will require as it moves toward producing chips with circuit lines 45 nanometers thick, nearly half the size of current chip technology.

The Intel workers who don't meet the staffing needs are expected to be notified in August and offered two choices, she said.

Workers who choose to leave immediately will be offered a severance package, she said.

Others can opt into the company's redeployment program. Shipley said those employees are typically given two months to search for new positions at other Intel sites. They will be provided with assistance from the company, which could include help in finding jobs outside of the company, she said.

"The employees' only job is to look for a new job," Shipley said of the program.

Those who don't find new jobs through the redeployment program, within the company or otherwise, are then offered a severance package.

Intel spokesman Jami Grindatto said some of the employees affected by the cuts have worked for the company for 25 years while others have just a year at the plant. The exact number of job cuts that will result from the end of production at Fab 11 is unknown.

Regardless, public officials found reason for optimism in the state's 3.7 percent unemployment rate and growing manufacturing work force.

"Fortunately, New Mexico is well positioned to absorb Intel's displaced employees," Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday in a statement. "The state's unemployment rate is at a record low and the manufacturing sector, particularly in the Albuquerque area, remains quite robust."

Companies like jet-maker Eclipse Aviation and electric carmaker Tesla Motors, which is expected to break ground on its manufacturing plant within a few weeks, are expected to add to the work force.

And in Rio Rancho, Jackson said career opportunities are growing in the film industry, in education with the emergence of new college campuses, in aviation, and in health care once Presbyterian Healthcare Services builds its $150 million hospital.

Jackson questioned whether the number of jobs lost would really rise to 1,000 since the company is offering a chance for workers to redeploy elsewhere.

Even if they go, Jackson said he is hopeful that eventually there will be reason for them to return.

"The goal is that this fab, Fab 11, will ultimately be retooled with a new technology and it will draw and attract additional jobs back to this area," Jackson said. "When this plant is retooled and the cycle swings the other way, they have the chance to come back to New Mexico."

While 200-millimeter wafers will no longer be produced in Rio Rancho, the site's other manufacturing facility, Fab 11X, will focus on the 300-millimeter wafers that are in higher demand.

Fab 11X began production in October 2002 and was Intel's first high-volume, fully automated 300-millimeter manufacturing facility.

Grindatto pointed out that market demand for products played a role in the job cuts, but a more automated process also means fewer workers.

"We're able to produce more per employee," he said. "It's about how innovative we are and how productive we can be."

Intel in February announced it was investing $1.5 billion to upgrade Fab 11X to produce the 45-nanometer chips. It's the company's next-generation manufacturing process.

Grindatto said the company has kept workers informed as it moved toward ending production at Fab 11 so they could plan for the job cuts and minimize their effects.

At least one of those workers this morning, a man leaving his overnight shift who declined to be identified, said he wasn't worried.

"I was looking for a job when I found this one," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.