Sears Canada Inc. announced it would lay off about 1,600 employees in Canada, after slashing another 1,800 jobs just months ago. The embattled department store operator's Canada branch said it will immediately dismiss 283 employees as a logistics unit is reorganized. As it scrambles to try to make massive reductions in costs with sales on the slide, the retailer also will eliminate 1,345 positions in customer service by phone in the next nine months.

That business, now handled at three call centers across Canada, will be outsourced by US computer services firm IBM.