Manufacturing employment is still 172,000 below the March 1991 level.

Manufacturing employment, for instance, fell by 40 per cent between 1979 and 1982.

Manufacturing employment fell by 62,000 in December, raising the total loss for the year to 178,000.

But the industry's share of total Scottish manufacturing employment was still nearly 13 per cent.

Manufacturing employment never recovered to early 1970s levels but overall production grew.

Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979; since then, the figure is down by more than a quarter.

Manufacturing employment, while still shrinking, is doing so much more slowly than in the first half, when the loss averaged 36,000 jobs a month.

Manufacturing employment fell as companies automated, but total output rose.

Manufacturing employment has dropped every month since September 1990.

Manufacturing employment, after growing by 1 percent a year between 1960 and 1981, declined by 2.6 million jobs in the past five years.