Express & Star

Thousands of manufacturing jobs will be lost because of the worsening economic outlook, a new report predicted today, with growing gloom among firms in the West Midlands.

The confidence of manufacturing firms has been “dented” by the economic slowdown, with expectations for output generally gloomy, especially in the South, said the CBI. It predicts an estimated 18,000 manufacturing jobs will be lost in the second quarter of the year, mainly in the South East and London, South West and East of England.

In the West Midlands the picture is more mixed. The CBI found business confidence in the region had fallen sharply in the past three months.

The West Midlands was one of the few regions where the increase in export orders outweighed a fall in domestic orders, but factory bosses were gloomy about the prospects for exports in the coming months.

After years of almost uninterrupted decline, factories have been producing more for the past 18 months. And, despite a modest fall in manufacturing employment, the pace of job losses remained near its lowest for a decade.

But the report found prospects are less encouraging for the next few months.

Over recent months steel firm Corus, with around 1,100 people at sites in the Black Country, has been bullish about prospects and recently invested £10 million in its site in Wednesfield.

Aerospace firm Goodrich has boosted recruitment at its Wolverhampton factory to around 800, while a new Scheff food factory in West Bromwich will create 30 jobs.

But Willenhall car locks firm CE Marshall closed last month after owners Assa Abloy had laid off 320 workers over the past two years. Walsall’s Linpac packaging plant is closing as the firm axes 300 jobs, while 80 people are losing their jobs at Dudley’s Apetito pie factory when it closes in June.

Scores more jobs have been lost in recent months at smaller manufacturing firms, while Birmingham is seeing the loss of 200 jobs at the Cadbury factory and 140 axed at Fujitsu’s telecoms equipment plant.

Lai Wah Co, the CBI’s head of economics analysis, said manufacturing was now being hit by the slowdown affecting the rest of the economy, but there were marked regional differences.

“Welsh firms actually feel extremely upbeat after a very strong quarter,” he said.