Chamber survey results show businesses in ‘cautious mood’
Date published:
The largest independent North East business survey’s results released today, 31 January 2022, show substantial concerns about inflation and energy prices. Over 80% of respondents were more worried about these two issues than they were three months ago.
Organised by North East England Chamber of Commerce, the quarterly economic survey also found that North East businesses largely ended 2021 in a far better position than they started it. The proportion of businesses operating at full capacity (52.7%) was above levels recorded last quarter (44.6%) and Q4 2020 (30.8%) While domestic indicators have fallen back slightly from the third quarter, they remained in positive territory; indicating growth.
Lesley Moody OBE, CBE Chamber President (AES Digital Solutions) said: “As we identified last quarter, the headline figures are undermined by some serious concerns on the horizon for our businesses. Export performance is worryingly flat, with firms identifying supply chain issues, increased costs and the continued disruption due to Brexit as the leading causes of this. This quarter also brings more worrying data on businesses’ cashflow.
“There is a lot of media discussion about an impending ‘cost of living crisis’. We must not lose sight of the fact that we are also facing a ‘cost of doing business’ crisis.
“When you add in the continuing concerns regarding staff shortages and a tight labour market, it is easy to see why businesses may be starting 2022 in a cautious mood. In the short term, business performance looks reasonably strong (especially after such a difficult couple of years) but it will not take long for challenges such as inflation to erode this performance. Policy makers must take heed of the warnings this survey provides.”
The survey also examines the recruitment market with 59.7% of respondents saying they had attempted to recruit full-time staff in Q4, representing a slight increase on levels recorded last quarter (58%) and a substantial jump from this period last year (38.3%).
A smaller proportion attempted to recruit part-time staff (36.6%), down slightly on last quarter (37.4%) but well above the level recorded last year (14.9%).
Commenting on these figures James Carss, managing director of recruitment group NRG said: “The continuing rising trend in Q4 of recruiting full time staff is both unsurprising and telling on the overall high demands to attract, hire and retain staff in 2021. We would normally (outside a pandemic) expect this to slow in the final quarter of the year, the fact that it hasn’t really demonstrates the desire of businesses to get up and running and back to normality which is of course very a very different picture from 2021.
“In the previous year of 2020 there was far more uncertainty which was clearly determined by a lengthy lockdown. Currently it is a candidate’s marketplace with a large volume and choice of opportunities available, though undoubtedly there will be challenges for businesses in the future, having the right talent in place will be critical to achieve growth and profitability.”
Durham University Business School is the associate sponsor of the Chamber survey.
Download the full report here.