British Manufacturing Set to Cut 68,000 Jobs in First Half of 2003

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 06, 2003

British Manufacturing Set to Cut 68,000 Jobs in First Half of 2003

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The British manufacturing sector will lose up to tens of thousands of jobs in the first half of this year as it continued to feel the pinch of the lackluster global economic environment, according to the Confederation of British Industry on Monday.

The organization of employers said firms have been cutting jobs across the country since Christmas as orders fall. It warned that up to 68,000 jobs would have been lost in the British manufacturing in the first six months of 2003 if current trends continue.

The latest quarterly research on manufacturing by the CBI and Experian Business Strategies said the manufacturing decline was being driven by a sharp deterioration in domestic demand.

It said weak global trading conditions had spread to the British market. For the first time since July last year, no region across the country recorded an increase in orders in the past four months, with the north west, east midlands and east of England experiencing the sharpest declines.

Export orders were also down in every region except Yorkshire and the Humber, with substantial falls recorded in the south west and north west.

Five of Britain's 11 economic regions said they expect a modest recovery in orders during the next four months.

But this is unlikely to boost employment, with firms still expecting to continue losing staff in every region except Scotland.

Peter Gutmann, associate director of Experian Business Strategies, said that "the deep pessimism in this survey is partly a timing issue."

He added that "sentiment was affected by the uncertainty surrounding the war in Iraq, which coincides with the survey period."

"However, the underlying malaise in the global economy is a depressing factor, clearly reflected in backward looking indicators," he said.

With the war in Iraq now over it remained to be seen whether a global recover would develop which would provide some relief to manufacturers, he added.

Overall British unemployment -- according to the measure favored by the government -- fell again in March, latest figure released last month show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless total dropped by 22,000, bringing the total to 1.494 million. But the number of people out of work and claiming benefit rose by 1,800 to 939, 900.

Most economists expect the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England to cut rates by a quarter of one percentage point to 3.5 percent in an effort to kick start the economy.

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