According to a report by the research and consultancy organisation, if the government wants to secure the future of the "real economy", loan guarantees and emergency funding ought to be extended to the manufacturing sector.

Ian Brinkley, associate director at The Work Foundation, said it would be a "big mistake" to write off manufacturing and leave it floundering during the recession.

He added: "We need to preserve as much of the industrial base as possible because once it is lost it is near impossible to get back again.

"Despite the mythmaking around the demise of manufacturing, the sector remains extremely important for jobs, exports and GDP."

Nicholas Mockett, a partner at Europa Partners, backed the report and said that the government needed to ascertain which industries need to remain indiginous.

He said: "The governement helped out the banks as it is difficult to see how an economy can function without a stable banking system. I struggle to see why we in the UK need a car industry, and if we do need one, why (British owned) Rover was allowed to fail.

"Printing industries are important part of any developed economy and quite often importing print (eg Newpapers) simply isn't realistic. So it will be interesting to see how the governemt helps out. That said, in some segements there is over capacity and the industry concentration is too low (fragmented) so don't expect bail outs for all."

The report was also welcomed by Unite, which has called for a £13bn investment in the UK manufacturing sector to safeguard jobs during the recession.

The manufacturing sector's contribution to UK GDP has declined over the past decade with the increasing dominance of the knowledge economy.

However, The Work Foundation paper points out that many traditional manufacturing sectors are adding knowledge-based services to their operations.

In the print industry, many companies are following this trend, diversifying into a host of services from data manipulation to design.

The report concludes: "The government should build on the recent strategy review of manufacturing by backing manufacturing and ensuring it has access to the necessary finance to continue to evolve and grow.

"The same criteria used to support the financial service sector through the recession – 'timely, targeted and temporary' - should be extended to manufacturing."