Tight economic conditions have prompted the world's No.1 PC maker Hewlett-Packard (HP) to announce, Tuesday, that it would slash 3 percent of its workforce or cut 9000 jobs over the next three years.

HP, which plans to invest $1 billion in new, automated commercial data centers that will help its corporate clients run their complex business applications faster and more efficiently, said it would downsize its workforce by cutting 9000 jobs through 2013, in its bid to retain its lead over rivals in tight economic conditions where companies scrimp on their IT spending. The company currently employs around 300,000 people worldwide.

The Palo Alto, California-based company, however, said that it will bolster its sales force and global delivery centers by creating 6000 jobs worldwide during the same period.

Though the shake-up will force HP to take a charge of $1 billion, it expects to generate annual net gains between $500-700 million till 2013.

This is not the first time HP announced job cuts to shed its flab.

In 2008, when HP bought EDS for $14 billion, it reported plans to cut 24,600 jobs to generate savings.

Earlier in 2005, the company announced plans to cut 14,500 jobs to reduce annual costs by $1.9 billion.

The largest job cuts announce by the company was in May 2002 post its merger with Compaq Computer Corp. - 15,000.

Shares of NYSE-listed HP, which competes with International Business Machines Corp (IBM) in enterprise services market and Acer, Dell and Lenovo in PC market, were trading 0.50 percent up at $46.24 at 10.46am (EDT) on Tuesday.

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