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."