Looks like consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Store Inc. (NYSE: CC) will be cutting costs in a pretty significant way by slashing over 3,400 store workers. Then, it will hire lower-paid employees to replace them. Nice, eh? In addition, the retailer stated that it will cut about 130 corporate jobs.

This is a move that will probably send Circuit City employees running for the exits once they hear that their "high-paid jobs" will be replaced by lower-paid workers. Circuit City officials went so far as to say that the store employees being let go had pay levels "well above the market-based salary range for their role." Sounds like Circuit City HR and compensation personnel are not doing their jobs if that was the case. I wonder how many of them will be let go?

In other news, Circuit City will be outsourcing its entire IT operations to International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) to further cut technology-related expenses by an estimated 16%. So far, these layoffs come on the heels of Circuit City's announced plans to close quite a few U.S. and Canadian stores as the retailer struggles to get its cost controls in line with reduced sales and plummeting margins -- especially in the white-hot flat-panel TV market. Competitor CompUSA is also closing quite a few stores. Will Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) be next?