Britain’s factories laid off staff in September for the first time in more than two years as the recession in the manufacturing sector bit.
Official figures yesterday showed that manufacturing contracted by 0.6 per cent in the first half of the year. September’s purchasing managers’ index for the sector indicated the decline continued into the third quarter.
The closely followed indicator slipped to 51.5 from 51.6 in August. While the reading of above 50 still signalled some growth, it was the equal weakest performance since 2013 and no better than the long-run average for the series.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said: “The UK manufacturing sector remained sluggish at the end of the third quarter, stunned by a triple combination of a sharp slowdown