Hewlett-Packard cuts 27,000 jobs - Business News - Business - The Independent Hewlett-Packard plans to cut 27,000 jobs as the growing popularity of smartphones, the iPad and other mobile devices makes it tougher for the company to sell personal computer. The cuts announced yesterday represent HP's largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. The reductions will affect about 8 per cent of HP's nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014. Word of the mass layoffs had leaked out in media reports late last week, so the news didn't come as a surprise.