PEOPLE living in Sussex are becoming increasingly worried about job prospects.

A report by economic consultancy Business Strategies shows that there has been a sharp rise in the number who expect unemployment to worsen in the next 12 months.

The report comes just days after three major Sussex employers announced job losses.

Insurance firm ICT of Worthing said 140 jobs would be axed in May following a takeover by Norwich Union, Crawley-based battery firm Duracell is shedding more than 150 staff and Parker Pen of Newhaven is making 70 people redundant.

Business Strategies' senior economist Melanie Lansbury, author of the report, said: "There has been a dramatic change in sentiment in the region.

"For more than four years until the last survey in October the proportion of those expecting unemployment to fall has been way ahead of those who expect it to rise. But now, the pessimists have a 22 point lead over the optimists. This compares with a 20 point lead for the optimist a year ago.

"It is the worst result since the first quarter of 1993, and also the worst result from any region of the UK.

"It no doubt reflects fears that unemployment, which has seriously affected manufacturing industry over the past few months, will now increasingly spread to services, which are strongly represented in the South East."

Alan Brooks, director of marketing at Sussex Enterprise, the chamber of commerce and TEC for Sussex, said such reports had a tendency of becoming self fulfilling.

He said: "If people are given a constant supply of bad economic news they will naturally be concerned about their jobs.

"Our latest survey shows that 20 per cent of firms in Sussex intend to take on more staff in the next few months, that shows that even in the current economic slowdown there are plenty of firms doing well."

He added that although some firms had recently said they would be moving some of their operations from Sussex, others, including Shell, were moving in.

The Business Essentials report shows that in the UK as a whole, fears over unemployment are rising, but to nothing like the same extent as for the South East. The average for the UK shows that those expecting unemployment to rise are 12 points ahead of those who do not.

Miss Lansbury added: "The views of consumers in this region on the economic outlook, although down, seem to be levelling out after the big fall recorded in the last survey in October.

"Also, they are no less optimistic about the outlook for their household finances over the year, which no doubt reflects reductions in mortgage payments which have occurred or are in the pipeline."

But the report shows that the feelgood factor has fallen in all regions apart from Northern Ireland.

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