Despite a slight fall in overall unemployment in the UK for February, manufacturing continued to contract losing some 158,000 jobs year-on-year in the quarter to January 2002. The leather, textiles and clothing sector was one of the worst hit, with 28,000 people losing their jobs compared with the year before.

The leather, textiles and clothing sector employed 237,000 people in the UK in the quarter to January 2002, compared with 263,000 people in the same period a year earlier. Separate figures for the leathergoods sector (excluding Northern Ireland) show a similar loss of around 10% - down from 22,300 in January 2001 to 20,200 in January 2002.

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