MANUFACTURING jobs in the North-East are being lost at the rate of 20 a week, according to the latest Government figures.

A total of 1,000 jobs have been lost in the sector in the past 12 months, and 39,000 have gone since Labour came to power in 1997.

The Liberal Democrats have said the job losses undermined the Government's claim that an overall cut in unemployment was one of its biggest successes.

According to the Office of National Statistics, 156,000 people were employed in manufacturing in the North-East by September last year, compared to 195,000 in June 1997.

Yesterday, it was announced that the overall unemployment count had fallen to 1.46 million - the lowest rate, at 4.9 per cent, since early 2001.

But numbers employed in manufacturing fell by 0.7 per cent in November - the biggest decline in more than a year, sparking claims that any recovery in output was stuttering.

Paul Holmes MP, the Lib Dem spokesman for work, said: "The North-East has suffered huge losses in its manufacturing industry, while the Government continues to sit idly by.

"The losses in the North-East since 1997 show that, for all their words of support, Labour has done nothing to stop the collapse of manufacturing across the UK.

"The Government has given up the fight to save manufacturing jobs and has left in the lurch the families dependent on those jobs to survive."

Electrical and optical equipment, pulp, paper, food and printing and publishing are among the sectors of manufacturing to record a fall in output.

Last week, Derek Simpson, Amicus union general secretary, warned that entire communities in industrial heartlandswere at risk.

The union has called for ministers to boost UK manufacturing productivity by making redundancies a more difficult and expensive option.