Does HP really need to cut 10% of its workforce?

As HP prepares to split its business into two separate companies, the firm has revealed it will be cutting around 30,000 jobs.

This further 10 per cent cut is on top of the 55,000 job losses HP announced earlier this year.

According to reports, the cuts will save £1.76 billion in annual costs, although the plan will allegedly cost HP around £1.76 billion to carry out.

Currently the firm has more then 300,000 employees worldwide, and these are expected to be in HP’s corporate hardware and services operations, to be rebranded as Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on November 1st.

During a meeting for Wall Street analysts, HP chairman and chief executive Meg Whitman said: “We’ve done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes and these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring,” reports the BBC.

HP Enterprise is splitting from the printer and PC business, which the firm says will provide each new company with independence and more financial resources.

But with any new business venture there are many costs to take into consideration, which perhaps could suggest why HP has decided to cut 10 per cent of its workforce.

Of course, there’s the declining PC market to consider, and other big firms like Intel, Dell and Lenovo are making changes to their businesses as they adapt to the shifting market.

Prior to this, HP announced a new Board of Directors in preparation for its separation, where each board will include members of the current HP board, as well as other directors that will be chosen following a review of their personal and professional qualifications.

The job cuts come as no surprise though following HP’s Q2 2015 financials, which reported that sales had fallen.

For example, for its fiscal quarter ending April 30th 2015, the company’s net revenue dipped by seven per cent year-on-year, while net earnings also fell by 21 per cent.

Although this is a drop in sales, it isn’t a significant decline so does this mean HP really needs to cut so much of its workforce? 

But it seems more and more PC giants are feeling the struggle, with the likes of Lenovo and Microsoft also announcing huge job cuts.

During August, Lenovo revealed it will be slashing 10 per cent of its workforce as part of a restructure.

In addition, Microsoft also announced a job restructure this year, cutting up to 7,800 positions, primarily within its phone business.

With so many firms choosing to slash its workforce, it comes as no surprise that HP is now following suit in the hope it will save its business more money, and we’re sure HP won’t be the last to announce such news.