TWO of Australia's main employment sectors — finance and retail — are showing heavy falls in the number of jobs in the three months to the end of November.

The finance sector, which includes insurance, posted the sharpest decline of 5.5 per cent, or 22,500 jobs, in the latest quarter.

The two sectors, which employ 380,000 people, have been rocked by lay-offs from local and international finance houses caused by the world credit crisis.

Several major banks have cut staff, and investment banks and stockbrokers, including Macquarie Group, are believed to have culled more than 500 local jobs.

The credit crisis is estimated to have caused almost 200,000 job losses at financial companies worldwide.

The second-biggest fall came in wholesale trade, the back end of the retail economy, which posted a decline of 5 per cent, or 23,200 jobs, amid poorer sales. Retail jobs decreased by 21,200 jobs, or 1.4 per cent, as companies were more likely to cut back-end staff before those on the shop floor.

Senior economist at the ANZ Bank Julie Toth said falls in job numbers tended to lag behind the rest of the economy, and the falling headcount in finance reflected lower profits generally.

"Retail and wholesale trade are showing the effects of deteriorating retail turnover through the middle of 2008," Ms Toth said.

The retail industry has avoided major lay-offs so far, but Christmas is shaping up as a crucial test for the retail industry of more than 1.5 million jobs, close to 10 per cent of the national workforce.

The executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, Richard Evans, said the Christmas period accounted for about 15 per cent of sales, but was normally more profitable than this suggested because of higher margins.

This year, however, many retailers had been forced to offer discounts to gloomy consumers who were spending less than previously.

"Anecdotal reports indicate that foot traffic has increased, but the unit spend is not as big as it was last year," he said.

Despite the economic gloom, retailers are hoping for a bounce in last-minute Christmas sales this week, as the multibillion-dollar Federal Government handouts trickle into the economy.

In other sectors, new mining jobs increased by 4.8 per cent, though Rio Tinto has laid off 14,000 workers since the figures were recorded, and Macarthur Coal and Xstrata sacked more than 400 workers last week.

Ms Toth said this was a "last gasp" from the sector, which usually had a higher proportion of full-time jobs.