More than 1,000 jobs have been lost in Shropshire and Mid Wales in the last three months as the recession hits the region’s businesses.

The closure of High Street stores, slump in manufacturing and a lack of new contracts has seen companies across the county forced to axe posts amid the global economic downturn.

A Shropshire Star investigation has revealed that between October and the middle of January, at least 1,011 jobs were lost, the majority in the Telford area.

Many of the posts were redundancies from manufacturing firms including Ogihara Europe in Hortonwood, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services in Shrewsbury, and GKN Sankey and BAE Systems, both in Hadley Castle, Telford.

The county figures reflect the national picture with manufacturers reporting the bleakest trading outlook in 28 years.

The CBI Industrial Trends survey revealed yesterday that 43 per cent of companies saw orders fall in the last three months, compared with the previous quarter. The figure is the worst since July 1991. 

But retailers have also been hard hit by the credit crunch, with about 200 jobs believed to have been lost as a result of the closure of nine Woolworths stores in the county.

Telford saw the largest number of jobs losses, at least 478, with Shrewsbury seeing about 115 posts axed since October 1.

Mid Wales has also been severely affected, with about 207 jobs lost in the region, mainly accounted for by 106 redundancies from Stadco in Llanfyllin although some of the posts are expected to be transferred to Stadco’s Shrewsbury base.

Nick Taylor, assistant director strategy and development for the new unitary authority, said it was clear the recession was “biting’ in Shropshire.

“There is no doubt that we are already seeing the effects of the recession. We do find it difficult to keep track of jobs lost because there isn’t a foolproof way of getting the exact figures, and there are companies perhaps only laying one or two people off or cutting hours.

“Looking at all the evidence, and the picture changes on a weekly basis, this recession is more rapid in its onset than anyone can remember in living memory.

“And the change has been incredibly fast. Unemployment in Shropshire has gone up and a little bit faster than the regional average, but we have to remember its coming from a low base.”

Mr Taylor urged businesses to seek help and access support packages available to help them combat the recession.