About 40 people are being made redundant from the engineering and architecture company Opus International Consultants this week.
Chief executive David Prentice said job losses would be across the board.
"It's unfortunate that we're having to let some people go from across the country - I guess it's reflective of the economy at present."
Dr Prentice said they thought "long and hard" before making the deciding on the redundancies and it was the last option available to them.
He said if there were other redeployment options here or overseas that became available through the process, then they would be taken up.
Business was going strong in Christchurch, where a post-quake rebuild was going ahead, but there were others who were "light on work", he said.
People who would be made redundant included architects and transport engineers.
"While 40 sounds like a reasonably large number, we do have 1800 staff in New Zealand," Dr Prentice said.
"I mean 40 is still more than anybody wants to make redundant at anytime, but unfortunately it is all part and parcel of running a large business."
Opus has offices in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
No redundancies were planned for the overseas offices, Dr Prentice said.
- Rebecca Quilliam of APNZ
