Engineering consultancy Arup has today confirmed that as many as 600 UK jobs may go as the result of a falling workload.

In a statement, the company said that it was continuing to operate in a period of uncertainty in the economy and that as a responsible business it was essential to match resources to its current and anticipated workload in order to ensure its long-term business health.

Arup said that like many other businesses, it had  been affected by the weak market, as well as expected and current cuts in government expenditure.

Describing its staff as its greatest asset, Arup said it regretted that the very difficult decision had been taken to implement a programme of redundancies, with a 90 day statutory consultation period which began yesterday.

The firm said it would endeavour to redeploy staff within the firm where possible - however that the anticipated  reductions could affect up to 600 employees across Arup in the UK.