Hewlett-Packard Co. is considering cutting as many as 25,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, to reduce costs and help the company contend with ebbing demand for computers and services, according to people briefed on the plans, Bloomberg reported.

The number to be cut includes 10,000 to 15,000 from Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise services group, which sells a range of information technology services and has been beset by declining profitability, Bloomberg said.

Meg Whitman, chief executive officer since September, is seeking to reverse the growth slump that led to the ouster of her predecessor, Leo Apotheker. The company’s sales of personal computers are dropping as consumers favor tablets, such as Apple Inc.’s iPad, and it has been slow to adapt to the shift toward cloud computing and away from the IT services Hewlett-Packard provides.

Eliminating 18,000 jobs could result in savings of about $1.2 billion and add 50 cents to annual per-share earnings, according to an estimate by Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group.

Michael Thacker, a spokesman for California-based Hewlett-Packard, declined to comment. Hewlett-Packard has a warehousing operation in Des Moines.

Some of the workforce reductions could be achieved through early retirements, Bloomberg said.