Suffolk businesses still doing well, but gap narrows with rest of region

Business remains buoyant across Suffolk, even though the gap between the county’s businesses and those in the rest of the East of England has narrowed across most measures.

The latest figures from Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) for the first three months of 2018 are based on responses from 128 Suffolk-based organisations, with 27 from the manufacturing sector and 101 involved in services.

The key headlines from the survey are:

• The balance of firms expecting to recruit staff in the future rose slightly from +24% to +25% for services firms with compared with a small fall across the east of England from +20% to +18%
• The balance of manufacturing firms reporting an increase in domestic sales fell from +56% to +33%, and remained the same at  +27% for those in services
• The balance of manufacturing firms reporting an increase in domestic orders fell from +44% to +31%, and fell from +19% to +13% for those in services
• The balance of manufacturing firms reporting an increase in overseas sales fell from +35% to +22%, whilst the east of England as a whole rose from +20% to +30%
• The balance of manufacturing firms reporting an increase in employment fell from +36% to +15%, compared with the east of England as a whole falling from +26% to +24%
• The balance of service firms reporting an increase in employment fell from +14% to +12%, the same as that of the east of England as a whole
• The balance of firms expecting to recruit staff in the future fell slightly from +33% to +30% for manufacturers with compared with a similar fall across the east of England from +25 to +22%
• The balance of manufacturing firms experiencing difficulties in finding staff fell from +88% to +81%, with those in services reporting a fall from +79% to +60%

Paul Simon, Suffolk Chamber’s communications and marketing manager, said: “The Suffolk figures suggest a certain readjustment from the highs reached in the last quarter of 2017. But there is no cause for alarm from one set of quarterly figures.

“Overall this is another strong set of returns suggesting that Suffolk PLC is doing well and believes that it will continue to do well both domestically and in exporting over the next few months or so.

“However, recruitment remains a worry, especially for manufacturers. This fact will strengthen our resolve to work through the British Chambers of Commerce to persuade the Government to settle on a post-Brexit immigration policy that meets the needs of businesses and doesn’t try to impose an arbitrary cap. That would not be in our county and our country’s best interests.”

Suffolk Chamber is grateful to Suffolk Knowledge, part of Suffolk County Council, for providing the analysis of the QES.