In the three months to June 2009, 220,000 more people joined the jobless market, taking the level of unemployment to 7.8%.

With the number of those out of work increasing, the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance has hit 1.6m - the highest level in 12 years.

According to Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke, the amount of people losing their jobs is unlikely to stop any time soon and he fears it could near or even surpass the 3m mark before the year is out.

He said: "I can see it happening – 5,000 [people] have lost jobs within print, paper and packaging since April and you have to remember there are lots of companies in consultation with staff that have given notice of redundancies and our people who have yet to sign on the unemployment register - so the level of unemployment can only go up."

Within manufacturing, pay increases averaged 1.1%, which paled in comparison to the public sector average of 3.7%. And even though average earnings grew 2.5%, this was at the slowest rate since ONS records began in 2001.

Burke said the sector's pay increases have been low with manufacturing taking "a battering" in the past months but he also cited companies imposing pay freezes on staff as another reason for the low increase.

"About 50% of companies across manufacturing have either secured or imposed a pay freeze on their staff. Some businesses have imposed pay increases when they are making a profit, some will never miss a good crisis to make cuts or change our members' conditions," he said.

Burke also expressed fears about the increasing level of young people unemployed, calling for a need to find ways to help school leavers and graduates into the industry, to stop a potential skills gap developing.

"There's a danger of mass unemployment and without new skills going into these industries, there will be a severe skills gap when we come out of the recession at the other side," he added.