STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with big layoffs in the technology industry.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Consider this a very, very short break in the intensive coverage of Wall Street. A big corporation based on the other coast has just announced a major round of job cuts. It's not a total surprise. When Hewlett-Packard brought technology services company EDS this summer, people expected job cuts. And now we get them. Yesterday, HP announced it's slashing more than 24,000 workers. That's nearly eight percent of its global payroll. Almost half the job cuts were in the United States, mostly EDS workers. Hewlett-Packard is reducing its workforce so that it can cut costs and better compete with IBM.
Hewlett-Packard announced Monday it will slash nearly 8 percent of its work force during the next three years. HP is restructuring as it integrates its newly acquired technology services company, Electronic Data Systems Corp. Most of the job cuts will be EDS workers. HP is reducing its work force so it can cut costs and better compete with IBM.