Nearly 100,000 Manufacturing Jobs Lost In A Year

1.12.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Apr 2004

The Government is not doing enough to stop the haemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs, Paul Holmes MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Work, said today.

Today's new unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 22,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last quarter and 92,000 in last year.

Paul Holmes MP said: "The Government is not doing enough to stop the haemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs."

"New Labour has turned its back on the manufacturing industry and the families dependent on those jobs to survive. The Government's complacency is breathtaking."

"The Government has failed to use the strong period of growth in recent years to deal with the lack of competitiveness caused by the overvaluation of the pound. And they have failed to correct the imbalance between regional economies."