A NAB employee fears they may have spent three years training their own replacement in India, highlighting growing anxiety over the impact of low-cost overseas labour and artificial intelligence on Australian office jobs, while skilled trades are increasingly seen as a more secure career path.
Offshoring was once associated mainly with factory closures and the loss of blue-collar work. Now it is moving up the corporate ladder, with skilled positions in finance, technology and cybersecurity increasingly being transferred overseas.
The pandemic demonstrated that many office-based roles could be performed from anywhere, giving employers the opportunity to replace Australian staff with lower-paid workers overseas.
One NAB employee now fears that three years spent training a colleague in India could ultimately lead to their own role being eliminated.
‘I’ve spent three years training a NAB India colleague to do my role and now my job is at risk,’ they said.
‘We’re still expected to train NAB India staff and pass on everything we know, even though we’re worried about losing our own jobs.
‘We’re handing over years of experience while trying to save our own careers.’
NAB has announced plans to eliminate up to 2,500 positions by the end of the current financial year, including as many as 1,500 roles before the end of 2026.
A NAB employee says their job could be at risk after they spent three years training a colleague in India
Australia’s major banks are expanding their Indian operations, including ANZ, pictured
Meanwhile, the bank continues to recruit employees in India and Vietnam.
Job advertisements reviewed by the Daily Mail indicate that NAB, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank are recruiting for positions in cities across India.
NAB employs more than 5,000 people in India and a further 2,000 in Vietnam. ANZ has about 9,000 employees in India, while Commonwealth Bank reported almost 7,000 full-time-equivalent workers there as of June 30.
The cost difference can be substantial. A junior software engineer in Vietnam may cost NAB about $20,000 a year, compared with $80,000 or more for an equivalent employee in Australia.
The trend is not limited to banking. Officeworks and Woolworths have also announced plans to transfer some Australian work overseas.
Finance Sector Union national president Wendy Streets told the Daily Mail that, from the perspective of Australian employees, offshoring was effectively another term for redundancy.
‘When an Australian job goes overseas we all lose,’ Ms Streets said.
‘The remaining “onshore” workforce is left to deal with job insecurity stress, extra workloads and bear the brunt of customer frustrations.’
White-collar employees once viewed job security as a given, believing ‘offshoring’ was mainly a threat to blue-collar workers. Pictured are Holden employees completing their final shift after the South Australian plant closed in 2017
FSU national president Wendy Streets said Australian workers all lose when a job is moved overseas
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She also criticised the employment conditions facing some overseas workers.
‘Unfortunately, offshore workers are often employed on contracts that allow arbitrary dismissal or pay cuts – so it’s not difficult to see why employers, including our richest banks, are seduced by such practices that have long been outlawed in Australia.
‘Meanwhile, Australia’s economy is also left to deal with the fallout of another livelihood thrown on the scrapheap.’
University of Sydney international business professor Vikas Kumar said the damage to Australian workers was clear, but the danger to Australia’s economy could be just as profound.
‘The concern is not simply that jobs are moving overseas. It is what Australia might miss out on if this trend continues,’ Prof. Kumar said.
‘If more of this work moves offshore, Australia risks retaining the brands and customers, but gradually losing expertise needed to underpin long-term competitiveness.
‘There is also a talent pipeline issue. Many of these positions are entry points for graduates and early-career professionals. They are where people acquire skills and prepare for more senior leadership roles.’
Offshoring is only part of the uncertainty facing Australia’s office workers, with advances in artificial intelligence allowing the technology to take on more analytical and administrative tasks that few could have foreseen just a few years ago.
NAB increased its headcount from about 33,000 full-time employees in 2022 to almost 42,000 in 2025, including recruiting 7,000 workers from India and Vietnam.
After news broke of NAB’s job cuts, chief executive Andrew Irvine (pictured) said he knew it would be a ‘difficult period’ for colleagues impacted
More than 60 India-based jobs have been advertised at Commonwealth Bank in the last month
Deloitte Access Economics has identified 82 occupations facing a heightened risk of weaker employment demand as AI takes on more work.
These include bank workers, accountants, law clerks, secretaries, systems analysts, payroll clerks and graphic designers.
Deloitte Access Economics partner David Rumbens said: ‘To date, AI has not yet had a significant structural effect on Australian employment. However, the impact of AI on the labour market is likely to occur where automation and augmentation affect specific tasks within jobs.
‘Overall, white-collar workers are expected to experience the greatest disruption from AI implementation, with most clerical and administrative occupations involving tasks that are readily automatable with current AI solutions.
‘However, these effects are unlikely to be uniform. Administrative and clerical roles are expected to face weaker employment demand, while occupations in which AI primarily augments cognitive work may benefit from improvements in productivity, output quality and service delivery and see stronger employment growth.’
His comments come as a recent Victoria Government report revealed the occupations less exposed to the impacts of AI, and which appear better bets for those seeking secure employment.
‘Manual occupations are less exposed to AI due to their physical and service-oriented nature,’ the report said.
‘These include non-routine manual occupations such as ageing and disability carers and education aides, and skilled trades such as electricians and plumbers.’
– READ MORE: Staff at Australian bank warn they’re being replaced by artificial intelligence and offshore labour