Engineering firms in the district should ready themselves for a winter of recession and job cuts, according to the Engineering Emp-loyers' Federation Yorkshire and Humberside.

The latest EEF trends survey has found nearly one in five of the area's firms say they may be forced to cut jobs over the next three months. Ian Hughes, association director, said: "The position is both fluctuating and unpredictable. Bus-iness started showing signs of improvement in the spring but this modest lift has evaporated with both home and export order books weakening.

"Downward press-ure on prices remain significant, with the inevitable effect on margins.

"More than 40 per cent of the firms in our survey admitted that margins had worsened during the third quarter of the year."

The survey also found that nearly a quarter of the firms which took part reported a reduction on prices they had been able to achieve on home market orders. A further 12 per cent reported similar problems in the export market.

Although emp-loyment levels at 54 per cent of the firms questioned have remained un-changed, 28 pre cent of companies said they had reduced their workforce.