The year 2020 has got off to a concerning start in and around the Liverpool City Region when it comes to job losses in manufacturing.
Three Merseyside giants - Jaguar Land Rover, Unilever and Typhoo - have all announced major changes to operations or reviews into how they run, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
In the space of a few weeks between the end of January and early February, decisions by those three alone have put at risk almost 800 jobs.
Unilever made a double announcement about job losses - and another potential 100 from its Warrington plant, JLR put 500 at risk of redundancy at its Halewood plant over shift changes and Typhoo said it will cut 76 roles (almost a quarter of its workforce) at its Moreton site.
That’s in addition to Unilever laying out plans for a “strategic review” of its entire tea business - including the iconic PG Tips and Lipton brands. You don’t need a doctorate to work out what will happen if - or more accurately when - the process finds that cutbacks are needed.
Now to address the not-so-invisible elephant in the room: Brexit.
Although it may not have been the defining element of these decisions, each of the above straddled January 31 - the date of our official departure from the EU, and the start of this year-long transition phase.
You could argue these regular sad stories coming as Brexit begins in earnest are just a coincidence.
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That our departure from the EU and everything that comes with it are entirely unrelated to firms evidently losing confidence in the 海角视频 as a place to manufacture and do business. But you’d be on thin ice.
Let’s focus on what was probably the most significant of the three announcements: JLR.
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The car giant’s claims that Brexit had nothing to do with its decision to cut jobs will come as little consolation to anyone. In fact, many people have outright denied that to be the case, and there are certainly other relevant factors such as a global glut in production as well as falling car sales in China.
But despite having first learnt of the change to shift patterns last autumn, this news will still have come as a shock to many at Halewood, given the sheer scale of cuts.
At a time when our region is feeling more politically vulnerable than at any point in the previous few decades, this latest announcement that sent ripples around the 海角视频’s car making industry was the news no one wanted.
And it's not the only car manufacturer in our region that appears to be in some trouble at the moment.
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In December, it was revealed the next Vauxhall Astra model is to be made in Germany, news which led to calls for jobs to be protected at the Ellesmere Port plant.
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Workers at the Cheshire site will be desperately hoping they don't get similar news to that at Halewood - a situation that will now hit hundreds of families in our region over the coming months and years.
But with the car industry appearing to be in decline faster than most expected, it's anyone's guess as to what happens next.
That’s even more the case now, given the way Brexit is going.
We now have well under a year to negotiate a new trade arrangement with the EU, a task that to many seems impossible, hence making a no-deal Brexit all the more likely.
On the subject of a potential no-deal, it’s a scenario openly feared by many firms across our region, not least Vauxhall, whose owner PSA Group has warned it could spell the end of the Ellesmere Port plant. Investment would switch instead to southern Europe.
Although JLR may have said the decision to cut 500 jobs last month wasn’t a result of Brexit, the firm’s warnings that tens of thousands of 海角视频 motor industry jobs will be put at risk if the 海角视频 crashes out with no-deal are well documented.
Industries such as aerospace, automotive, chemicals, food and drink and pharma have already warned the government how they would be affected by the type of ‘bare bones’ agreement that could come at the end of the year - or indeed leaving without a deal.
Either way, we will have a big dollop more of our old, familiar friend, uncertainty. Uncertainty - that thing we all thought would go away by “getting Brexit done” on January 31.
Be it deal or no deal, as the last three years have shown, Mr Johnson and chief unelected bureaucrat (I thought Brexit meant we were getting rid of those too?) Dominic Cummings prefer to appease hard-right Tories by adopting a consistent scorched earth tactic.
That means keeping intact this bizarre, immovable aim of completing negotiations by the end of the year - do or die.
The Prime Minister’s clear contempt for our region - not to mention protecting manufacturing jobs - certainly leaves this Liverpool resident fretting over what’s to follow in the months and years to come.