HP has announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce as the company adjusts to lower demand for business PCs and mobile workstations as businesses around the world continue to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. .
The IT giant has released (opens in a new tab) its fiscal 2022 results, showing a fourth-quarter revenue decline of 14,8% from the same period last year.
The cuts, which will affect 4000 to 6000 employees, could expose not just HP, but PC makers in general as companies can buy fewer PCs to accommodate hybrid work best practices and reduce technology costs amid an ongoing recession.
HP cost reduction measures
As The Wall Street Journal (opens in a new tab) noted, the layoffs come after HP increased its workforce by about 10.000 workers from the same period last year.
However, the company realized that there are other ways to save money besides throwing away the lives of regular employees who are also trying to stay afloat in a cost-of-living crisis.
In what it calls its "Fiscal 2023 Future-Ready Transformation" and what anyone might call "a series of cost-cutting measures," HP claimed it would save on "digital transformation, portfolio optimization, and operational efficiencies."
One specific example he gave was taking advantage of falling demand for materials by relying on cheaper, slower ocean freight deliveries instead of faster air freight.
HP's announcement of new cost-cutting strategies follows the release of data (opens in a new tab) showing PC demand in the hardware manufacturing industry is declining at the fastest rate in two decades with no sign of stopping.
Proof of this is recent WSJ reports that Intel (opens in a new tab) and Advanced Micro Devices (opens in a new tab) (AMD) are also turning to cost-cutting measures to ease economic pressure.