Manufacturing production increased marginally to 35.8 index points in January, compared with 34.9 in December.

However, reading is the third worst the CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index 17-year history and the sector experienced heavy job loses.

Tim Cowell, managing director of manufacturing recruiter MRL, told Recruiter the sector is uncertain about recruiting and clients were being bombarded by calls.

“There are pockets of recruitment. High-value low-volume manufacturers are always looking for key people, including the defence and public sector arenas.”

Roy Ayliffe, director of professional practice at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS), says: “Purchasing managers in the sector reported an anaemic opening to 2009, with record falls in employment as factory jobs were cut at an astonishing rate of 30,000 per month.”

The study also found the economic difficulties being experienced by most of the UK’s major trading partners means exporters are unable to benefit from a weakened pound.