January 5th, 2023, Christien Pheby
In the wake of an Autumn Statement that most companies said offered too little support, businesses are in a pessimistic mood as we enter 2023. YouGov research shows that, when asked, four in ten expect their financial situations to worsen over the next twelve months (41%) – with just three in ten expecting an improvement (29%).
In an even less auspicious indicator of their mood for the year ahead, three-quarters say they expect the situation for businesses across the UK to worsen (76%), with just one in nine saying they expect it to get better (11%).
There are some grim omens for the nation’s workers. While six in ten businesses say they don’t expect to make redundancies (61%), three in ten (29%) say it’s likely they’ll have to make cutbacks to staff because of the cost-of-living crisis in the next year.
A quarter are also expecting to slow down hiring (26%), although a similar proportion plan to increase hiring (23%) over the coming 12 months.
The pandemic shut down many businesses in 2020 and 2021 (on a temporary or permanent basis) and 2022 offered little reprieve. Against this backdrop, it’s perhaps unsurprising that optimism is in short supply among decision-makers at British companies. Whatever business owners, workers, and governments may disagree on, they will be hoping that their financial situations for the year ahead outperform their gloomier predictions.
YouGov B2B Omnibus provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 21-24 November 2022, with a nationally representative sample of 543 business decision makers in Great Britain (aged 18+ years), using a questionnaire designed by YouGov.
Data figures have been weighted by age, gender, region, education level and social grade, to be representative of all adults in Great Britain 18 years or older, and reflect the latest ONS population estimates. Learn more about YouGov RealTime Omnibus.
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