Local Canadians lose have become gains for the nationals of the Philippines and India who are looking out for jobs. Retailer Sears Canada has announced it will shed some 245 jobs locally, of which some will be outsourced overseas.

The jobs were mostly located at the head office, of which 138 were from the information technology department, 99 from finance and eight from payroll.

"The workload will be transferred to external third party providers whose business expertise includes updated systems and processes that can more efficiently perform the work involved," the company said.

Majority of the job lay-offs, about 200, come from the Toronto area, 38 in Montreal and six in Belleville, Ont.

"These days to keep up to date with all the system investments you need to make, it's not our core business. We're leaving it to people we feel can do it more efficiently," Vince Power, the national retailer's vice-president of communications, was quoted by Toronto Star.

Most of the IT work will be moved to the Philippines while employees in India will handle the finance and payroll work, Mr Power added.

"For Sears to continue maintaining its systems, it's going to take a lot of investment. We want to invest in our core retail business - which are things like improving the stores, store presentation, e-commerce."

"For us to keep up to date with certain systems in IT and in finance and accounting, [we need] to divert some of that investment."

With a workforce of about 29,000 people, Sears Canada had laid off early this year some 700 jobs across Canada, mostly from its department stores and distribution centers.

Employees affected by the impending layoffs were sent notices on Monday. They are expected to leave the company within the next six months.