A double whammy of falling revenue and rising costs have ultimately forced Australia's largest department store operator Myer to slash 100 jobs from a total of 13,000 manned staff, chief executive Bernie Brookes announced on Thursday afternoon.

"We have undertaken a major review of all support function expenditure, including services provided, marketing and events, IT, HR (human resources), merchandise and supply chain with a view to rebasing our cost structure to align to the operating conditions we face," he said in a statement.

While the job cut merely represent a little less than 1 per cent of its entire workforce, "these decisions are never easy, they are prudent and necessary to ensure our business is attuned to our operating environment," Mr Brookes added, noting efforts are being made to redeploy the affected staff to other areas of the business.

Quarantined from the job cuts were investments in customer service, brand development and its omni-channel strategy.

In May, Myer said its full year profit could fall by as much as 15 per cent in fiscal year 2012, below the previous year's $162.7 million.

"Costs to retail businesses are increasing significantly due to higher occupancy costs, higher wage costs, and the inflation of other outgoings including utility charges. Given these factors, it is prudent to review how we support the business to maximise the flexibility of operations for the future," the company said.

"What we are seeing in retail is really a tale of woe; we are seeing the most difficult time I have encountered in nearly 36 years that I have been involved in retail, I have not seen it as difficult, as consistently difficult, than what it is today," Mr Brookes said.

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