HP takes the axe to eight percent of its employees
 

The maker of jolly expensive printer ink, HP, is firing an army of workers in a bid to pull its nadgers out of the fire.

About 30,000 employees are to be handed their pink slips and P45s. HP will not be able to escort them from the building because the persons responsible will also be given their marching orders.

According to the FT, the job cuts are a record for the technology giant but it is having trouble with its bottom line at the moment.

HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman planned the cuts - eight per cent of HP's total head count, which stood at 349,600 at the end of October.

There could be some more cuts to come, as deep throats in the organisation claim that the exact number wasn't yet final. One person said that a formal announcement could come when the company reports quarterly results next week.

Wholesale decimation of staff is becoming a trend in the tech industry lately. HP already laid off a lot of people under Mark Hurd (pictured). Hurd later laid himself off, only to resurface at Oracle.

HP has long had a policy of shifting staff jobs offshore to cheaper parts of Eastern Europe. Wide scale redundancies on this scale could harm these economies which are also having a tough time lately.

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