Employment conditions for manufacturing professionals in New Zealand could continue to be be challenging as the sector's growth showed signs of easing in October.

The latest performance of manufacturing index (PMI) published by the Bank of New Zealand in partnership with Business NZ stood at 50.6 at the end of October.

While this represents a 7.5 point improvement on this time last year, it also represents a drop of 0.9 points on September's figure. This suggests that the recovery of the manufacturing sector will continue to be tentative and new jobs will only be created on a gradual basis.

Commenting on the figures, Craig Ebert, a senior economist at the Bank of New Zealand, said: "The slippage in the PMI's employment component back into negative territory seemed an especially important hint that firms may not be entirely convinced of the definite pick up they propound."

At the end of October, the Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone announced plans to close its New Zealand operations, with hundreds of manufacturing jobs to be lost over the coming months.