In the latest Cork Chamber Economic Trends Survey, Cork Chamber reports on the business outlook for the third quarter of 2021 and the year ahead, and member experiences of the most recent business quarter, Q2 2021. The survey reports on business experiences, the overall operating landscape and the business priorities ahead of Budget 2022. While evolving in the final weeks due to the emerging news and rising case numbers of the Covid Delta variant and the subsequent announcement postponing the reopening of indoor hospitality, this had been a period of relative stability with considerable progress in the delivery and uptake of vaccines. The survey itself was conducted over the final two weeks of June, with the government announcement coming in the very final days of the survey period.
BUDGET 2022
Top 3 Budget priority areas
In 2019, New Zealand Treasury introduced the Living Standards Framework (LSF) to capture what matters for New Zealanders’ wellbeing, now and into the future. The framework integrates planning about policy impacts on wellbeing, taking a long term perspective on people, places and generations. The LSF complements rather than replaces traditional economic tools such as GDP and aims to enhance, support and underpin comprehensive and robust policy development. In the latest trends survey, we asked members whether you would support the introduction of a similar framework for Ireland through a commitment to this in Budget 2022.
Housing, housing and housing – the rental market is currently impossible in Cork and surrounds. This is making it incredibly difficult to attract foreign talent JP Kelly, Murphy Geospatial
PANDEMIC AND BREXIT SUPPORTS
Pandemic supports must continue long after March 31st for sectors that need a considerable lead time to recover. Marc Cullen, Cork English College
A grant for businesses to become more sustainable -extend the actual support till end of March 2022. Bastien Peyraud, The Imperial Hotel
Get product moving freely through customs. Delays of 12 days and counting at present with correct paperwork is simply unsustainable. Anonymous
BUSINESS CONFIDENCE
The latest figures report 90% of respondents indicating business confidence. This is an increase on the previous quarter which showed 84% of businesses reporting confidence in Q1. A very encouraging trend and a significant improvement on the same quarter last year which saw confidence at 73%.
Q2 % TURNOVER AND NET PROFIT
The latest survey shows that 65% of respondents expect an increase in turnover in the third quarter, with 52% anticipating an increase to net profits in the same period.
With the impact of covid19 and debt accrual for businesses closed by compulsory order of the government, the introduction of further fiscal responsibilities is onerous and will have a serious impact particularly in the recovery time frame. Anne Marie McIlwraith, Just For Men, Manscaping Lounge
Stimuli for commercial city center development to counteract the doughnut effect.” (*development where the city centre becomes empty, as businesses and people move to the outer edge of the city) Patrick Leader, Leaders Menswear
EMPLOYMENT DATA
The previous Q1 2021 quarter reported 43% of respondents expecting an increase to employee number over the 12 months ahead.
Of the 47% of responding businesses reporting current vacancies, 41% of these are reporting difficulty filling the open roles (i.e. remaining unfilled for greater than 3 months since the initial advertisement). These vacancies are primarily arising in IT, engineering and finance.
CONFIDENCE IN THE IRISH ECONOMY
The latest findings show an increase in confidence levels in the Irish economy at 73%, up from 52% in the previous quarter.
TOP 3 THREATS TO BUSINESS GROWTH
