A QUARTER of manufacturing jobs in the region have disappeared since Labour came to power and the trend is expected to continue, a business leader warned last night.

As new figures showed that more than a million manufacturing jobs across the UK have been lost since 1997, Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF) northern director Alan Hall said the North-East had been badly-hit.

Although the region accounts for only four per cent of the country's economy, the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen by 60,000 - from 230,000 to 170,000, he said.

Also, figures yesterday showed that despite unemployment rising across the UK in the past quarter, in the North-East, it had fallen by 5,000.

And the EEF last night warned that more skilled jobs would be lost overseas unless action was taken to help the sector.

Job creation in services such as call centres and supermarkets have helped the UK achieve historically low levels of unemployment, but there have been cuts in manufacturing for the past several years.

Mr Hall said: "Manufacturers feel that the Government is not doing enough to put us on a level playing field with China, Poland or Russia.

"The Government still doesn't take the sector seriously and it is suffering for that."

But JobCentre Plus said that as of March 4, it had 52,237 vacancies in the North-East. Just under a third, or 12,700, were classed as skilled jobs, mainly in the manufacturing or construction industries.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: ''Industry's failure to invest and modernise in the face of international competition has got the manufacturing sector into serious trouble that continues to cost 100,000 jobs a year.''

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, said: "Manufacturing jobs are vital to the economy, so every effort should be made to safeguard them. Much more still needs to be done, but the Government is taking steps to stem the flow, and UK employment rates are among the highest in Europe.

"With an election looming, we should never lose sight of the fact that 11 million manufacturing jobs were lost under 18 years of Tory rule and they were never replaced."

The Department of Trade and Industry said it was important that UK manufacturing competed on the basis of high technology and high skills.

It said the Government supported that approach and its policies included a £370m funding drive to boost technology.