Business Insights And Impact On The UK Economy - 9 March 2023

9th March 2023

The impact of challenges facing the economy and other events on UK businesses. Based on responses from the voluntary fortnightly business survey (BICS) to deliver real-time information to help assess issues affecting UK businesses and economy, including financial performance, workforce, trade, and business resilience.

Half (50%) of trading businesses reported that they were able to get the materials, goods or services they needed from within the UK in January 2023 without encountering any supply issues; a further 11% reported that they were able to get the materials, goods or services they needed but had to change suppliers or find alternative solutions to do so, with both percentages broadly stable when compared with December 2022.

In January 2023, one in eight (12%) businesses with 10 or more employees experienced global supply chain disruption, down 3 percentage points from December 2022; the most commonly reported reason for this disruption was a shortage of materials (35%).

For March 2023, 7 in 10 (70%) businesses reported some form of concern for their business, broadly stable with the proportion for February 2023 (72%); the top two concerns reported by businesses for March 2023 continued to be energy prices (19%) and inflation of goods and services prices (15%).
More than 1 in 10 (13%) businesses reported that their employees' hourly wages had increased in January 2023 compared with December 2022; this was 24% for businesses with 10 or more employees.

More than a quarter (27%) of businesses with 10 or more employees were experiencing worker shortages in late February 2023, broadly stable when compared with early January 2023 (28%).

In January 2023, 1 in 10 (10%) businesses had been affected as a result of industrial action, with more than a quarter (26%) of those businesses reporting that they were unable to fully operate as a consequence.

Read the full ONS report HERE