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Monday, 23 Nov 2020 08:38 GMT
One in seven businesses fear closure amid Covid-19
Some 14% of companies across all industries fear their businesses could close permanently within the next few months as a result of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests.
The business insights and impacts report looks at the state of industries in the UK during November, taking into account England entering into a new national lockdown and other restrictions currently in place.
When asked if they were confident about the business remaining open, 14% said they had no or low confidence that they would still be trading in three months’ time.
Though the study did not give a specific category for sign-making or wide-format print, it did list industries related to the sectors.
Some 15% of business working in information and communications had no or low confidence of surviving, while 7.2% of manufacturing firms were also low on confidence.
The area of highest concern was accommodation and food services, where 33.8% of companies had little or no confidence they would still be trading in the New Year.
Other key findings from the survey included that around 9% of the whole UK workforce is currently on furlough due to Covid-19 measures, with 28% of staff working from home and 60% still in the workplace.
Of the companies that expect to close in the next two weeks, 87% of these were due to their business not being financially viable to continue operating during lockdown.
There was also reference to the impending Brexit measures, with 7.7% of firms across all industries reporting less workers from the European Union since the start of the pandemic, compared to 2.1% who took on more staff from the EU.
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