LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The layoffs are an attempt to streamline HP's faltering PC and services businesses. Chief executive officer Meg Whitman is trying to reorganize the tech giant into a leaner and more efficient powerhouse, but she faces major obstacles.

Overall, the personal computer industry is stuck in neutral. HP, while it remains the world's largest computer maker, is traveling in reverse at high speed. The company's PC sales fell 15 percent during the holiday season, consumer computer sales falling by 25 percent.

HP's services business is likewise weakening. Its once-golden printing business has stagnated over the past decade. The printing business has fell especially hard in the last few years: profit in that division fell 10 percent last year as sales remained flat.

The majority of the job cuts are expected to come from the printing unit. HP had considered spinning off its PC unit last year, but the board later decided that it would hang on to the business-critical but low-margin division.

Some see this as potentially the right decision, but HP has deep problems in the market. It's believed HP "missed the boat" on tablets and failed to produce a viable smart phone. The world is going increasingly mobile, leaving PCs behind. HP is struggling to stay relevant.

Things are tough all over. Dell Computers face similar struggles. Dell's lackluster PC sales dragged on its overall profit and revenue last quarter. Its stock fell more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.

If CEO Whitman can trim some of HP's fat, realign the organization and make other iterative improvements, there's still not much she can do to significantly alter the company's prospects without making some drastic, painful changes.

Even then, HP's past attempts to slash its way to prosperity hasn't worked.

Then-CEO Mark Hurd axed 9,000 positions in June 2010. HP shed another 275 workers in February after the company discontinued the webOS lineup that it purchased from Palm.

HP has continued to spiral downwards. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are forecasting that HP's sales fell five percent last quarter, and they expect its profit to be down 26 percent.

That trend, of movement in the wrong direction, is expected to continue throughout the rest of 2012.

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