Employers in the region are struggling to fill manufacturing posts with skilled workers, despite figures released yesterday showing that jobs are still being lost in the sector.

A report by the Office for National Statistics showed there had been a continued fall in manufacturing jobs across the UK, falling to 3.37 million, the lowest number since records began.

But Alan Hall, regional director of the Engineering Employers Federation, said a meeting last week with 25 of his 400 North-East members had revealed that many were struggling to fill skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

He said: "These figures come as a surprise, because the manufacturing sector in the region is buoyant - to the point that employers are struggling to fill posts in engineering and general manufacturing.

"The talk in a meeting we had last week was that there were real skills shortages and this is in an area where manufacturing skills are good.

"It is mainly because the sector is so buoyant and because it has not been buoyant for such a long time we have not been training new blood.

"It is a complex problem, and hard to summarise, but there is a lot of work around and people desperately needed to fill the positions."

Other unemployment figures released yesterday showed that the number of people out of work between March and May rose by 6,000 to 1.43 million, but the number of people claiming benefits was down by nearly 10,000, the lowest total for nearly 30 years.

Work Minister Jane Kennedy praised the Government's record and said Britain had the best employment record of the major world economies.

In line with Mr Hall's claims, the Government will today highlight the tens of thousands of jobs available in manufacturing, and urge people not to "talk the sector down".

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt will say that, despite rhetoric suggesting there were no jobs left, there were 58,000 vacancies in manufacturing companies.

She will tell a TUC conference: "But what chance do we have of filling these, of recruiting the engineers and technicians of the future, if all young people ever hear is doom and gloom about the sector?

"The fact is, new jobs in manufacturing are being created all the time.

"Around 250,000 manufacturing vacancies were reported to Jobcentre Plus in the last year alone.

"My message is: 'Don't talk the sector down'."