J Sainsbury said yesterday that it would lose up to 300 jobs at its head office as it seeks to cut costs, on another gloomy day for unemployment figures in the UK.

TT Electronics, a Surrey-based component-maker, announced 100 British job losses, while Ericsson, the Swedish-based global telecoms group, said that it was cutting 5,000 jobs, although it is not known how many of those would be in Britain. Hammonds Support Systems, a Bradford-based conveyancing company, is cutting 200 jobs after a sharp decline in business.

The announcements came as the number of people claiming unemployment benefit reached a ten-year high of 1.16 million.

Sainsbury’s said that it was trying to ensure that there was no duplication in roles among its workforce. It follows Marks & Spencer in announcing head office job losses. This month M&S said that it would cut 450 jobs, or 15 per cent of staff, at its Paddington headquarters.

There are likely to be between 200 and 300 jobs cut at Sainsbury’s, Britain’s third-largest supermarket group. It has said that it will create 5,000 jobs this year. A spokesman said: “This will simplify activities and enable greater synergies across our supplier base. New jobs have also been created.”

The retailer, which is in the process of consulting staff over the job cuts, employs about 150,000 staff in Britain – 2,000 of these are at its headquarters in Holborn, Central London, with a further 1,500 administrative staff in Manchester, Coventry and in depots around the country.

This week, Burberry, the fashion group, Empire Direct, a Leeds-based electricals retailer, and Vion, the Dutch food maker, announced 1,300 job losses in Britain between them.

Sainsbury’s enjoyed a robust Christmas, reporting sales growth of 4.5 per cent that outstripped that of Tesco, the market leader, but competition in the sector is expected to be demonstrated today with Wm Morrison likely to reveal growth that will see it chip away at Sainsbury’s third place in the market.

Analysts expect that the Bradford-based grocer will announce like-for-like sales increases of between 8 and 9 per cent, with some even hoping for a modest profit upgrade. Its market share has reached 10.6 per cent after a strong performance in December, according to figures from Nielsen.

Morrisons is the last of the “Big Four” supermarkets to update the City on its Christmas performance. Along with Asda, also towards the lower end of the value chain, it appears to have reaped the rewards of consumers trading down; both achieved higher sales growth than Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Somerfield, the 900-store chain owned by a consortium including Apax, the private equity firm, Barclays Capital and Robert Tchenguiz, the entrepreneur, enjoyed a strong Christmas performance. Like-for-like sales rose by 3.7 per cent over the three weeks to January 3. Smaller stores grew by 10 per cent on a like-for-like basis, Somerfield said. Last week, the Office of Fair Trading rubber-stamped the Cooperative Group’s takeover of the supermarket group, subject to the sale of about 200 Somerfield stores. Paul Mason, Somerfield’s chief executive, said: “These figures clearly demonstrate the turnaround that has been achieved at Somerfield – and provide an excellent platform going forward for the combined Somerfield and Cooperative Group businesses.”

John Cleland, Somerfield’s retail director, said: “We will be bringing together two businesses that have a shared vision to be Britain’s favourite local grocery shop.”

Trolley race

4.5% Sainsbury’s sales growth over Christmas

8-9% Christmas sales growth expected to be reported by Morrisons today

150,000 staff employed by Sainsbury’s in Britain

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax