Victorian automotive
parts maker Silcraft has closed down, taking 460 jobs with it, after
buckling under the pressure of relentless price cuts demanded by car
giants Holden, Ford and Toyota, reports The Australian today.

This follows a string of other closures and cutbacks in Australia’s
automotive sector – Melbourne-based components maker Ion went into
administration in December and last month cut 200 jobs at its Albury
engine transmission plant; in June Victorian windshield-wiper maker
Trico announced it would axe 160 jobs as it shifted its operations into
China; seatbelt and airbag manufacturer Autoliv is shedding 500 jobs
over 18 months at its Melbourne plant; and in February, engine parts
maker Dana cut its Adelaide workforce from 150 to 50 after failing to
win a contract to supply Holden.

But
the auto industry isn’t the only one doing the redundancy shuffle.
Here’s some of the other companies that are axing jobs to ease
financial pressure:

Crikey’s Redundancy Watch

1,000: Jobs cut from the National Australia Bank‘s local operations since it announced in a plan,
in May, to cut 4,200 jobs, or 10.5% of its global workers. The same
number of positions will be eliminated in the next two years.

235: To be cut from Telstra subsidiary Sensis and some of its recent acquisitions like the Trading Post Group, announced in October.

100: The entire 2006 intake of Telstra‘s graduate recruitment scheme who were offered jobs this year have been told their positions are redundant, as reported last week.

800: To go from Telstra‘s network and technology operations, announced last Friday. Meanwhile, brokers predict up to 9,000 jobs could go as part of Telstra’s strategic announcement later this month, says the SMH.

21: Axed from Fairfax‘s marketing, advertising and circulation staff in Melbourne last week, according to The Australian.

68: Editorial jobs to go from Fairfax‘s flagship newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review, announced late October.

12: To be cut from Nine Network’s Melbournestaff, including several reporters from the newsroom, according to rumours circulated last month that have been strenuously denied by the network.

2,500 – 3,250: The number of Qantas staff estimated (by The SMH, here, and The Australian, here)
to be moved offshore from the airline’s engineering operations, after
Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon confirmed last month that the
airline is looking to move “significant parts” of its operations
overseas.

200: The number that Australia’s peak science organisation, CSIRO, may need to cut in a bid to save millions of dollars from its cash-strapped budget, as told to a parliamentary committee last week.

If you know of any Australian company redundancies we’ve missed, email boss@crikey.com.au.