The Government must pump investment into the nation's depressed manufacturing sector if it is to stop losing business overseas, industry leaders warned.

The Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) and 24 other trade bodies painted a stark picture of the demoralised state of British manufacturing in a submission to the Chancellor ahead of this year's pre-budget report.

The missive came on the day that official employment figures revealed job losses in manufacturing industry had hit 10,000 a week.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics showed jobless figures had risen by 45,000.

Business bosses stressed that a re-think was needed to halt the decline as emerging markets in Eastern Europe and China capitalised on low wage rates among their workforces.

The submission to Government, An Environment for Investment, argues that manufacturing will suffer if already high costs in the sector rise any further.

It is therefore calling on the Government to introduce several measures aimed at cutting costs.

These include "significantly" higher capital allowances or a tax credit for investment, a review of the Climate Change Levy and a reduction in insurance premium tax.

EEF director general Martin Temple said: ''If we continue to make the UK a less welcoming environment for manufacturing companies, then business will simply vote with its feet and the movement abroad of our manufacturing base will accelerate.''

The report also called on the Government to promote higher skills in industry.

It also wants the Chancellor to fulfil the spending review commitments of increased funding for education and skills.

A total of 159,000 manufacturing jobs were cut in the three months to September, taking the total number of workers in the once-booming sector to a record low of 3.6 million.

The number of people looking for work stood at 1,541,000 between July and September based on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition.

The ILO measure, which is preferred by the Government, includes everyone looking for work even if they are not eligible for benefits.

The claimant count, which only includes jobless people receiving benefits, fell by 4,500 last month to 940,500, the lowest total since 1975.

In the North-East, 53,529 people were officially registered by JobCentre Plus as claiming unemployment- related benefit, down 5,508 on the previous year.

In North Yorkshire, 4,834 were claiming benefits compared with 4,222 the year before.