One of Britain's biggest unions says manufacturers in Sussex face a bleak new year amid predictions of further job losses.

The general workers union GMB says there were more than 600 manufacturing job losses last month in Sussex and a further 5,000 nationally.

Across the UK as a whole, there were more than 96,000 manufacturing redundancies in the first year of the new millennium.

GMB general secretary John Edmonds said: "As a result of the manufacturing crisis, thousands of working families have faced a black Christmas.

"We can only hope that the New Year will bring good news from the Bank of England's monetary policy committee in the form of interest rate cuts so that once again our industries will be able to compete."

This now seems increasingly likely either this month or in February following yesterday's news of a surprise interest rate cut in the USA.

GMB Sussex organiser Gary Smith said: "We are very deeply concerned about the continuing decline in the manufacturing industry."

He added that while new jobs were welcome, they tended to be in the service sector and warned that a successful economy could not be built on services alone.

Sussex job losses last month listed by the union are:

British Polythene Industries at Portslade - 54.

Daewoo at Worthing - 113.

Autolly at Chichester - 100.

Hall and Woodhouse at Horsham - 50.

Knowles Electronics at Burgess Hill - 145.

Unigate at Chichester - 182.