Growth in Britain’s manufacturing sector has slowed, triggering the first job losses since the spring of 2013 and marking one of the weakest quarters industry has seen during the past two years.
The performance at UK factories was lacklustre in September, when growth slipped to a three-month low. The monthly snapshot from Markit/CIPS showed the manufacturing PMI at 51.5, down from a revised reading of 51.6 in August.
The manufacturing sector has been growing for 30 months, according to the survey, but the pace has slowed since the start of the summer. While output growth improved slightly last month, growth in new orders tailed off to the weakest rate seen this year. Slowing orders prompted manufacturers to lay off workers for the first time since April 2013, the survey showed.
