Updated 1st Jan 2012 -  This accounting year has seen UK turnover in the Mechanical Engineering, Materials Processing and Industrials sector companies monitored increase by 2% to approximately £242.7bn, while operating profits have increased by 11% to £15.7bn.  Employee numbers have declined marginally by 0.4% to 5,875,978 people in this last year.  In the last 3 years turnover has risen by 0.9%, while employee numbers have shown a growth of 27% over the same period.  See UK Growth by Sector section for more detail.