SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard this week announced three initiatives to reduce workforce costs even as it reported strong growth in revenue and profit because of brisk holiday sales of consumer products such as laptops and photo printers.

“Cost discipline and revenue growth go hand in hand,’’ Chief Executive Mark Hurd said to analysts during a conference call.

The money-saving measures HP unveiled all relate to current employees’ retirement. Hurd sent an e-mail to employees Tuesday stating that one-third of HP’s U.S. employees will be affected by the retirement-related changes, according to two people with knowledge of the e-mail.

(HP employs about 3,000 people at its Corvallis campus.)

The company will no longer contribute to U.S. employees’ defined-benefit pension plan — a freeze that already hit most U.S. workers in July 2005. The freeze is now being extended to the rest of the company’s U.S. workforce. Instead, HP will increase its 401(k) match from 4 percent to 6 percent.

Similarly, HP further narrowed the pool of workers eligible for its subsidized retirement medical program to employees who by May 31 are within five years of qualifying, which requires retirees to be at least age 55 and have worked at least 15 years at HP. The company already stopped offering this benefit to most U.S. employees. In the future, employees will be eligible for a retiree medical program in which retirees pay the full costs of coverage but can use their Retirement Medical Savings Account to help pay premium costs.

The company also is offering another early retirement program, in which U.S. employees whose age and years at HP total at least 65 by June 30 will receive extra pay if they leave the company by May 31. The qualifications and benefits are similar to the early retirement program offered in July 2005.

Some employees and their families were excited about the revival of HP’s retirement incentive.

“My wife has been hoping for this since she missed out on the last plan,’’ said a retired Silicon Valley resident, whose wife works in HP’s corporate division. “Ideally, she wants to do more traveling.’’

HP plans to let up to 3,000 employees retire early under this added incentive, but its worldwide head count of 156,000 employees shouldn’t fall.

“Do not assume that these jobs are eliminated,’’ Hurd said during Tuesday’s analyst conference call. “We will have people in multiple functions across HP that take advantage of this program. Many of those jobs will be replaced.’’

Still, the early retirement program should save 1 to 2 cents per share in the second half of this year and in the following year, Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak said, in part because of lower labor costs.

HP expects the pension plan freeze to give the company a one-time gain of approximately $500 million — enough to offset the costs of offering the early retirement program.

Hurd called the trio of retirement-related measures “an attempt to get our benefit structure in line with the industry’s ... to get the company as competitive as we possibly can get it.’’

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On Wednesday, MarketWatch reported, investors’ disappointment with HP’s earnings outlook helped drag down the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 48 points to a close at 12,738. Another factor was news that consumer prices rose more than expected in January, which fueled concern about inflation.

On Tuesday, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer and printer maker had reported revenue rose 11 percent — the largest year-over-year quarterly increase in three years — to $25.1 billion for the fiscal first quarter ending Jan. 31, up from $22.7 billion in the year-ago period. Lesjak attributed this “over-performance in the first quarter’’ to robust holiday sales of HP’s consumer products, such as laptop computers and photo printers.

HP earned $1.5 billion, or 55 cents a share, in the quarter, up 26 percent from $1.2 billion, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

The company improved operating margins in each of its five key businesses and finished laying off the last 590 employees under its 1½-year-old restructuring plan that has now cut 14,790 jobs, or roughly 10 percent of the workforce.