The blueprint has been drawn up by Creative Sheffield, the first city development company of its type in the UK, which has a remit to push forward the area's regeneration.

It has set the target of not only creating new jobs, but of improving the expectations of a large part of the workforce by training staff to take on more highly skilled jobs than they currently have.

In reality, that would mean training unskilled workers to perform semi-skilled roles, with those currently in those jobs being given the support to advance into fully skilled functions.

Part of the plan is to attract major new employers to the city, but also to assist existing employers to expand their businesses.

If the plan succeeds, the overhaul of employment in the city is expected to take 16,000 currently without work into jobs.

Creative Sheffield chief executive, Ian Bromley, described the Economic Masterplan as: "The most authoritative business plan any UK city has seen.

"It builds on the revival we have seen over the last 10 years and sets out a specific route forward for the creation of jobs, improved skills and better incomes for every family in the city.

"Sheffield is fortunate to have a name recognised throughout the world. It stands for quality and innovation and our plan is to place Sheffield back on to the world economic stage.

"Sheffield had the highest level of employment growth of all UK core cities during the 10 years to 2005, with 73,000 new jobs, which shows we have the track record to deliver on our ambitions," he said.

The business district is expected to involve the creation of 1.5 million square feet of accommodation, along with the digital square mile built around the new Digital Campus which is under construction alongside the city centre transport interchange.

Sheffield already has the best growth performance in the country for creative and digital industries, which has expanded by 19 per cent in the last five years, and the objective is to exploit that for further expansion.

The so-called digital square mile would be built around the film, design, interactive media and games industry which is already established in Sheffield.

A further element of the plan is to work closely with the region's other two major cities, Leeds and Manchester, to create what the report authors describe as the country's second largest "economic growth pole", or a northern "super city" encapsulating all three centres.

Sheffield and Manchester have already embarked on a joint study of ways to improve commuter links between them.

Creative Sheffield is also involved in exploratory talks with Leeds Council about the prospect of using the opportunities which exist in all three cities to create a more successful regional economy.

Today's report is intended to build on Sheffield's recent performance on regeneration, which has seen 73,000 jobs created in the decade to 2005, the highest level of employment growth among all of the country's core cities in that time.

The city also has an unusually young population, with 43 per cent aged between 20 and 34, compared to a national average of 20 per cent, providing a readily available workforce should desirable new jobs be created.

An indicator of the city's strengthening economic position is the increase in office rents, which are up by 40 per cent in the last four years.