The boutique investment bank is hurting.

Thomas Weisel has already cut 9 percent of its workforce, but that’s not stopping the firm from cutting more — it plans on cutting another 13 percent in the next few weeks. In total, the cuts will amount approximately 22 percent of the workforce, or 160 employees. The firm will be left with approximately 600 employees, according to the firm’s Q1 release.

Hires in specific areas continue, however:

The firm will continue to selectively upgrade its talent pool within revenue generation areas. Two additional salespeople were recently hired in Boston, one of whom, Ken Murphy, is the new head of sales in Boston. Recently announced, the firm added Eamon Hurley to the investment banking team in the energy sector. In research, the firm added Kurt Molnar in Canada, and Mike Scialla in the U.S., to cover oil & gas exploration & production companies. The firm also augmented its mining coverage with the addition of Heather Douglas who will cover large capitalization international gold companies.

Investment banking revenues totaled $11.5MM for Q1 08, compared to $52.8MM in Q1 07.  First quarter transactions totaled 23 for the first quarter, compared to 49 in the same period last year.