HP has announced plans to cut another two per cent of its workforce after registering a 17 per cent drop in quarterly net profit.

The technology one-stop-shop saw net profit for its fiscal second quarter to 30 April fall to $1.7bn (£1.1bn), compared with $2.1bn a year earlier.

Revenue slipped three per cent to $27.4bn as sales in every major product group outside of services plunged by double digits.

Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) was the worst hit, reporting a 28 per cent decline in revenue to $3.5bn. Personal System Group (PSG) revenue fell 19 per cent, HP Software sales by 15 per cent and Imaging and Printing sales by 23 per cent.

HP Services provided one bright spot in the quarter as group revenues rose 99 per cent on the back of HP’s recent acquisition of EDS.

HP chief executive Mark Hurd said: “Our services business continued to deliver strong profitability with an increased deal pipeline and the EDS integration tracking ahead of schedule.”

The technology mammoth revealed in an accompanying conference call that it plans to cut a further two per cent of its headcount – equating to more than 6,000 jobs. This comes on top of the 24,600 posts HP is in the process of axing in relation to the EDS acquisition.

During the quarter, HP harvested $10.6bn in sales from EMEA – down 11 per cent in dollar terms and two per cent in local currencies.

The giant added that it expects full-year 2009 revenues to fall by around four to five per cent.