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HP reportedly considering 25,000 job cuts, will begin restructuring in earnest on May 23rd (update 2)

HP reportedly considering 25,000 job cuts, will begin restructuring in earnest on May 23rd (update 2)

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It sounds like the tough times may be continuing for HP — according to Bloomberg, the company is considering laying off approximately 25,000 employees due to declining demand for its computers and services.

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It sounds like the tough times may be continuing for HP — according to Bloomberg, the company is considering laying off approximately 25,000 employees due to declining demand for its computers and services. A layoff of this size would represent a 7.2 percent cut of HP's 349,600 employees. 10,000 to 15,000 of those employees would be cut from HP's enterprise services group, though there's no word on which specific departments would absorb the rest of the layoffs. The exact number of job cuts under consideration appears to be in flux, with Business Insider reporting that HP could lay off as much as 15 percent of its workforce.

These layoffs would all be part of CEO Meg Whitman's plan to turn HP around in the wake of continued poor financial results that have continued since Whitman replaced former CEO Leo Apotheker. While the majority of those under the gun will simply let go, "several thousand" people may instead be offered an early retirement option — small consolation, but better than losing their jobs entirely. This layoff may not be a sure thing yet, but it certainly seems like HP is at least considering some fairly dramatic actions to help its balance sheet. We're reaching out to HP for more information, though "no comment" has been the response to other outlets so far.

Update: All Things D is now reporting that HP will begin its restructuring plan, including layoffs of up to 30,000 employees, on May 23rd. This latest report indicates that HP's layoffs will not take place all at once, but instead be rolled out over the course of a year or even longer.

Update 2: The New York Times cites anonymous HP executives who claim that the reason for the layoffs is to spend the resulting savings on R&D and sales budgets instead, and that China in particular would likely not be affected by the job cuts.