DJs also will cut food, champagne and the after-party from its February fashion parades in Sydney and Melbourne, moving the shows to an austere morning timeslot as it prepares for further slowdown.
Chief executive Mark McInnes said the job cuts would come from amongst administration, HR, IT, finance, and marketing employees both at head office and around the store's network.
"We made our decision based on our actual experience, ie we've had two consecutive quarters of significant sales loss and there is just less to do in a head office sense,'' Mr McInnes said.
"There was no work done on this until we saw the results of Christmas and (the) clearance (sales).''
This was a one-off move, however, and no further job cuts were forecast for the next two years, Mr McInnes said.
David Jones also revised its profit growth and sales forecasts on Wednesday after it was hit by a slowing economy and consumer spending.
The company now forecasts profit after tax to grow between zero to five per cent for the 2009 first half and full year and the 2010 full year.
That compares with the previous forecast, in November, of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent after-tax profit growth.
Sales during the first half of 2010 are expected to fall between 3 per cent and 5 per cent, with flat sales in the second half.
That means David Jones would face 6 quarters of declining sales, which was unprecedented in 20 years.
The company also will cut food, champagne and the after-party from its February fashion parades in Sydney and Melbourne as it tightens its belt further.
Mr McInnes said it was not prudent of the company to be celebrating its fashion launch in an extravagant way.
The cuts will bring down the cost of the parade by over 50 per cent.
"We have halved the number of people who will be invited and there will be no party associated with the fashion parade,'' Mr McInnes said.
"It will still be a spectacular show but it will be a show and nothing else."
At 13.40pm AEDT, David Jones shares were 19 cents or 7.2 per cent lower at $2.45.
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