UK manufacturing sector employment fell in September for the first time since April 2013, a key survey has revealed.
The seasonally-adjusted survey, published by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), also shows that the UK manufacturing sector experienced one of its weakest quarters during the past two years in the three months to September. Its performance remained lacklustre in September.
CIPS's purchasing managers' index for manufacturing, a composite measure of activity in the sector, fell from 51.6 in August to 51.5 in September on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
While remaining above the level of 50 deemed to separate expansion from contraction, the index continued to signal only very modest growth.
And the employment index dropped from 50 to 49.9.
The survey is further evidence of the extent to which Chancellor George Osborne's March 2011 Budget vision of "a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers" has failed to materialise.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compiler Markit, said: "The UK manufacturing sector remained sluggish at the end of the third quarter, stunned by a triple combination of a sharp slowdown in consumer spending, weak business investment and stagnating export order inflows.
"The survey is still broadly consistent with stagnation, or even a mild downturn, when compared to official data."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel