Business confidence continues at steady pace

With UK business confidence remaining stable, employment expectations climbed for the fifth consecutive month and is at the highest level since 2018.

However, the Lloyds Bank Business Barometer also revealed that 18% of businesses reported significant difficulties with finding employees with the right skills and experience.

Confidence rose across the whole of the UK, with Scotland seeing the biggest increase and confidence in the services sector is at its highest level in three years, however, retail and the manufacturing sector both fell slightly.

Hann-Ju Ho, Senior Economist, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said, “A fifth consecutive monthly increase in trading prospects and employment expectations highlights the resilience of UK businesses as they continue to recover from the challenges presented by the pandemic. Although we must now wait slightly longer for the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions to ease, it’s an encouraging sign that firms continue to have strong overall confidence in the outlook for the UK economy, as well as their expectations for their own growth prospects.”

Paul Gordon, Managing Director for SME and Mid Corporates, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, added, “Despite a fall in business confidence in eight of the UK’s nations and regions from the highs of last month, the differences are narrowing. It’s pleasing to see such significant improvements in a number of regions, in particular Scotland and London, with both reporting strong increases in confidence. We can be optimistic that the increase in confidence in the services sector, as well as the overall historically high levels across the broad industry sectors, bodes well for businesses as we remain by their side on their road to recovery.”

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