Businesses in Wales express optimism for 2016

Welsh businesses are increasingly optimistic about their economic prospects this year, despite concerns about recruitment, data from a new survey has been able to reveal.

The Welsh Business Barometer has been produced by the South and Mid Wales chambers of commerce in partnership with the West Cheshire and North Wales chambers and found that 42 per cent of businesses expected an increase in turnover over the next 12 months.

Job creation was also targeted with 42.8 per cent recruiting new staff during the first quarter of 2016 and 15.2 per cent planning to increase their workforce further over the coming months.

Despite the overall optimism, the survey also showed a deceleration in businesses reporting an increase in export sales, down 2.9 percentage points to 16.1 per cent.

Priorities for export growth included creating a new international business organisation for Wales, bringing more flights to Cardiff Airport and doing more to develop Wales as a brand across the world.

Keith Palmer, chief executive of the South Wales Chamber of Commerce, said: "Although the job market isn’t as buoyant as it was this time last year, more businesses are intending to increase their workforce, which suggests that people are now in more secure roles.

"Not only are more businesses seeing an increase in their workforce, but more are projecting this trend to continue, suggesting that this may be long-term growth throughout Wales.

"The skills gap has been a problem for Welsh businesses for quite some time, with two-thirds of businesses regularly encountering difficulties with recruiting. If the new government wants to address this successfully, we believe that there needs to be a greater investment in basic skills training, to ensure that potential applicants are ready for the world of work."