In the same way that summer outfits such as board shorts and bikini tops and bottoms are easy to take off after a romp in the beach, jobs in clothing companies such as Pacific Brand and Billabong are easily being shed.

The announcement of job losses at the two iconic summer wear brands comes at a time that other Australian brands such as Qantas, ANZ, Westpac and Reckitt Benckiser have disclosed plans to axe hundreds of jobs or offshore some of them. It also came out just when the Australian Bureau of Statistics bannered that unemployment in Australia went down to 5.1 per cent in January.

Billabong announced on Friday that it will lay off 80 workers in Australia and 400 worldwide, while it will shutter more than 100 stores. The debt-laden clothing company suffered a 72 per cent decline in first half profit which went down to $16 million.

Billabong Chief Executive Derek O'Neill asked the federal government for assistance for the ailing retail industry due to higher operating cost. He also asked landlords to reduce rents. By closing up to 150 stores, Billabong hopes to save up to $30 million in rents.

Mr O'Neill also disclosed that Billabong will sell its 50 per cent stake in its Nixon brand to Trilantic Capital Partners to form a joint venture. The firm will use the net proceeds of $285 million from the deal to repay debt.

Since the firm rejected the $3 per share takeover bid from private equity firm TPG Capital due to the absence of certainty, Billabong will go ahead with the partial sale of Nixon to stabilise its balance sheet, the firm said.

Analysts estimate that Billabong needs $250 million to $350 million to fix its balance sheet.

Following the announcement, Billabong shares went up 64 per cent or up to $1.14 per share to $2.93 in the resumption of trading on Friday morning.

Also on Friday, Pacific Brands announced it would axe more than 100 jobs at its Bonds and Berlei distribution centres in Sydney. However, Pacific Brands would shift operations to a new distribution centre at Truganina in Melbourne where 76 full-time jobs were created.

Pacific Brands explained the move to the Truganina centre being closer to rail, air and sea transport facilities.

New South Wales Deputy Premier and Trade Minister Andrew Stoner said he contacted Pacific Brand to save the Sydney jobs, but it was too late, prompting NSW Opposition leader John Robertson to accuse the state government of acting too late to save the jobs.

Similar to Billabong, Pacific Brands reported a larger first half loss which has grown to $353.865 million from $206.1 million due to a decline in sales to $684.729 million from $852.078 million. The firm forecast lower sales due to the continuing weak retail conditions and changes to its customer base.

Meanwhile, in response to Qantas threat to shed 500 jobs, Transport Workers Union National Secretary Tony Sheldon said the air carrier failed to meet Fair Work Australia requirements in axing the jobs and must be prosecuted. He said Qantas is mandated to consult, negotiate and have discussion and engagement with employees when restructuring occurs.

He accused Qantas of planning to outsource the jobs to be cut, but the air carrier denied the charge.

"It's become clearer and clearer from both statements within Qantas management privately, and from our politicians in Canberra on both sides of the house, that Qantas intends to strip the flying Kangaroo and Jetstar in an operation to maximize profits for the executives," Mr Sheldon told the Herald Sun.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott took advantage of the series of job cut announcements to once more hit the carbon tax which will be collected beginning July 1. He said the carbon tax would cost Australian companies more and make it harder to keep employing people. However, he conceded that other factors such as the high Australian dollar also contributed to the axing of jobs.

"These job losses are a disaster for the workers and I fear they are a bad sign for the future.... My problem is that government policy in many instances in making a bad situation worse," he told 9 News.

While the ABS report showed a decline in joblessness, Mr Abbott said the government must look at the whole unemployment situation for 2011 when no net new jobs were created which is the first time in 20 years.

However, Employment Minister Bill Shorten said that despite the high-profile job cuts in recent days, there are small businesses, health services and other companies in the service sector which are hiring workers. Besides these companies, he cited the creation of 340 new constructions jobs by Holcim in Brisbane and 200 IT jobs by Digital Reality, a Deer Park-based company.

Mr Shorten, though, acknowledged that the employment landscape has drastically changed in terms of jobs no longer being for life. This situation calls for re-skilling of workers.

"The idea of one job for your lifetime is dead.... I think if you want to keep skilling people and we're spending $3.5 billion on that then people will always be able to find work more easily than if they didn't have training and skills," ABC quoted Mr Shorten.

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