Job exodus abroad 'will continue'
The loss of manufacturing jobs from Wales to countries abroad is set to continue, a BBC Wales investigation has found.
In the last decade over 50,000 factory jobs were lost - around 7,000 a year.
The losses came from all sectors including food and textiles, with many companies re-locating to places like Eastern Europe for cheaper wage costs.
Over the next five years 18,000 more could be lost according to the research for BBC Wales' Week in Week Out.
Many of the companies have said they were moving production to Poland, Slovakia or the Czech Republic.
In the last six months more than 4,500 jobs have been lost or are due to go - the equivalent of 15 factories the size of Burberry's Treorchy factory which closed in March with the loss of 300 clothing jobs.
Director Dr Max Munday said the job losses were "becoming quite rapid, quite worrying".
Dr Munday said wages abroad could be considerably cheaper.
"It's very, very difficult for Wales to compete," he said.
"Some of the wage costs we are talking about could be 20-25% of the wage costs here."
Thomson Technicolor in Cwmbran, which made DVDs of films from Disney and Paramount, is making its last 300 workers redundant and moving its operation to Poland.
The company says its most modern production facility is there, but the Amicus union has accused the French multinational of putting profit before people.
Last November, the company won a prize from the Wales Quality Centre for manufacturing excellence.
David Phillips, the centre's chief executive said he did not think Wales was in a position to hold mass manufacturing in the long-term.
"But there are lots of opportunities for manufacturing to stay in Wales - the high end of it, the value-added services, the design, the good technologies," he added.
Automotive company Continental Teves in Ebbw Vale has announced it is moving volume production to Slovakia - and with it hundreds of jobs.
Employee Gerald Evans said the situation was getting "worse and worse".
"I don't know what people are going to do," he said.
"Are they going to go home with no wages, just to keep a job?
"Without somebody fighting to keep manufacturing in Wales, I don't know how Wales is going to survive to be honest."
The Welsh Assembly Government says job losses have been absorbed by the rapid growth in service jobs - from insurance companies to call centres.
The loss of manufacturing jobs from Wales to countries abroad is set to continue, a BBC Wales investigation has found.
In the last decade over 50,000 factory jobs were lost - around 7,000 a year.
The losses came from all sectors including food and textiles, with many companies re-locating to places like Eastern Europe for cheaper wage costs.
Over the next five years 18,000 more could be lost according to the research for BBC Wales' Week in Week Out.
Many of the companies have said they were moving production to Poland, Slovakia or the Czech Republic.
In the last six months more than 4,500 jobs have been lost or are due to go - the equivalent of 15 factories the size of Burberry's Treorchy factory which closed in March with the loss of 300 clothing jobs.
Director Dr Max Munday said the job losses were "becoming quite rapid, quite worrying".
Dr Munday said wages abroad could be considerably cheaper.
"It's very, very difficult for Wales to compete," he said.
"Some of the wage costs we are talking about could be 20-25% of the wage costs here."
Thomson Technicolor in Cwmbran, which made DVDs of films from Disney and Paramount, is making its last 300 workers redundant and moving its operation to Poland.
The company says its most modern production facility is there, but the Amicus union has accused the French multinational of putting profit before people.
Last November, the company won a prize from the Wales Quality Centre for manufacturing excellence.
David Phillips, the centre's chief executive said he did not think Wales was in a position to hold mass manufacturing in the long-term.
"But there are lots of opportunities for manufacturing to stay in Wales - the high end of it, the value-added services, the design, the good technologies," he added.
Automotive company Continental Teves in Ebbw Vale has announced it is moving volume production to Slovakia - and with it hundreds of jobs.
Employee Gerald Evans said the situation was getting "worse and worse".
"I don't know what people are going to do," he said.
"Are they going to go home with no wages, just to keep a job?
"Without somebody fighting to keep manufacturing in Wales, I don't know how Wales is going to survive to be honest."
The Welsh Assembly Government says job losses have been absorbed by the rapid growth in service jobs - from insurance companies to call centres.
All the population migrations are heading West
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