HP warns tech biz not getting any better

The tech industry is showing few signs of recovery, Hewlett Packard’s CEO Mark Hurd warned.

His warning came as HP published its second quarter figures which showed revenues had fallen by 3.2 percent.

And it means that more jobs will be lost at HP, which is already engaged in cutting 24,000 jobs as a result of taking over EDS last year. An additional two percent of employees will lose their jobs.

Nevertheless, although HP isn’t particularly confident about the present quarter, it turned in a profit of $1.72 billion, compared to the $2.06 billion it made in the same period last year. It turned in sales of $28.26 billion in its second quarter last year compared to revenues of $28.26 billion in the same period last year.

Revenues were hit particularly hard in HP’s usually lucrative printing division, falling by 23 percent in the quarter compared to last year. The PC division fell by close to 20 percent.