Senior trade unionists have called on the government to take urgent action to halt the rising number of job losses in the manufacturing sector.

As the Canadian electronics company, Celestica, announced job losses as a result of continued economic uncertainty, the MSF boss Roger Lyons called on ministers to take swift action.

"The government now needs to take urgent action because ever greater number of jobs are pouring out of manufacturing. Job losses are spreading across every sector of the economy from heavy industry to new industry," he said.

Celestia plans to cut 1100 jobs between its factory in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, and its base in Stoke-on-Trent.

A spokesman for the firm said: "The company has announced a rationalisation of its UK organisation and its regrettably announcing 1,100 jobs are at risk of redundancy. This is a last resort decision by the company and it affects 450 support staff at the Kidsgrove facility in Stoke-on-Trent.

Lyons' comments came just 24 hours after heavy job losses were announced by Marconi and British Airways.

Echoing calls from the CBI, Lyons called on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee to cut interest rates when it announces its next decision on Thursday.

He also called for the appointment of a manufacturing tsar to oversee the rebuilding of the troubled sector - which has officially been in recession for some months.

Meanwhile, the high street boom appears to be continuing although economists are warning that consumer confidence was falling as fears of a recession spread from manufacturing to the service industries.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Managers (CIPS) said on Wednesday that there was "near negligible" growth in services in August and predicted that things would get worse before they improved.

And whilst shoppers continued on a spending spree last month, the CBI is warning that high street sales are likely to slump towards the end of the year.

Alastair Eperon, the chairman of the CBI's distributive trades panel, said: "Several indicators in today's survey suggest the robust growth will not extend into September. Retailers' confidence about the business situation over the next six months has dropped back from the levels reported in February and May."

Analysts believe a further rate cut could bolster high street sales and shore-up confidence in the housing market.