More Australian jobs would likely be placed on the chopping block because of the difficult business environment across the country. This development may reverse the small gains made in January when the country's unemployment rate slightly went down to 5.1 per cent from 5.2 per cent in December 2011.

Among the jobs that may be at risk are 10,000 at Reed Construction which just advised the New South Wales (NSW) government that is going through cashflow problems. Reed has contracts with NSW to upgrade the F3 freeway, Great Western Highway and Queens Square Law Courts in Sydney.

According to Brian Parker from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, Reed is waiting for a $10-million payment from the NSW government for work completed as far back as three years ago. He said the state government has the obligation to sit down with Reed and solve the problem to avert the possible loss of 10,000 jobs.

NSW Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce said the state government has been in discussions with Reed since the construction firm informed it of its financial woes. He said the Roads and Maritime Services and Building the Education Revolution programme office had advised him that the two institutions have advanced their payments to Reed ahead of contract terms to help the firm address its cashflow problems.

In early February, a century-old construction firm, Kell and Rigby, suspended work after the collapse of an investment deal.

Outside the construction sector, 80 employees of RBS Australia are at the risk of losing their jobs as the lender plans to offshore the jobs and downsize its Australian operations. RBS plans to shutter its fixed income, commodity and currency or FICC trading business, reports said.

However, some of the workers could be retained if they accept the offer to relocate to Singapore or London, while the rest will receive redundancy payments.

RBS will retain a small number of FICC sales force in Australia. Andrew Chick, country head of RBS Australia, explained that the nature of its FICC trading business and global markets as well, and client base, would allow the bank to continue serving its clients efficiently and effectively from its Singapore or London offices.

"As difficult as this decision is, we are not alone, all banks are revisiting their strategic priorities. Banks across the board are re-examining their strategies and resource allocation," 9 News quoted Mr Chick.

He added that the bank would retain is Debt Finance and Structuring, Cash Management, Trade Finance, Investor Products and Equity Derivatives divisions. These units, however, would end up having a total of only 70 employees which was the original number of workers when the Royal Bank of Scotland purchased a one third stake in the bank and eventually boosted the number of staff to 600.

RBS initially said in January that it would whittle its Australian office to 130 with 120 traders, analysts and front office staff in the equities business and 80 back office workers to be axed. Other bank workers who would likely lose their jobs are those engaged in IT, property management and human resources tasks.

The job loss in RBS is part of the 7,000 bank jobs expected to be cut in the next two years. Other Australian banks that have announced the reduction of manpower amid increase in interest rates are ANZ Bank and Westpac. In the case of Westpac, like RBS, it is offshoring some of the jobs to be cut.

The RBS job cuts are part of the bank's massive cost-cutting and asset disposal program to reduce its bloated balance sheet and cut reliance on British government funding. The British government acquired an 82 per cent stake in RBS after it bailed out by £45 billion the lender in 2008.

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