Business Confidence Still High Despite Index Dip

Business confidence across Townsville remains high notwithstanding a slight softening in the results contained in the release of the PVW Partners September 2022 quarterly Business Confidence Survey. September 2022 quarter reveals an index of 10.1, slightly down from the previous quarter’s post-GFC high of 13.4.

Carl Valentine, PVW Partners Managing Partner said, “business confidence in Townsville is proving to be resilient in the face of growing economic headwinds, resource constraints and a change in Federal Government”.

Commencing in September 1991, PVW Partners Townsville Business Confidence Survey has now been running for over 30 years and is a unique measure of the levels of confidence of Townsville’s business community.

The results for this third quarter of 2022 provide a positive insight into the expectations of our business community.

“Employment is still a priority for local business with both small and large businesses struggling to find appropriately skilled and experienced people. 39% of all respondents are looking to employ more people and this reflects the highest score on this element of the index since the GFC. While its often the case that the majority of businesses are looking to maintain or increase their employee numbers, this is the highest instance recorded in many years of our local businesses looking for more people.”

“Related to the apparent scarcity of new employees, 49% of respondents indicated they expect to increase their expenditure on staff training. This expected growth in staff training budgets is unprecedented in the history of the index and is a clear reflection of employers looking to better skill and equip their existing employees. This is likely a combination of employers seeking to retain their current teams but also asking employees to expand their roles due to the scarcity of new recruits.”

This survey also asked Townsville’s business owners and managers what impact the May 2022 change in Federal Government was expected to have on their business. Carl Valentine said, “its reassuring to see that 36% of the respondents just want to get on with business and aren’t particular phased by a change in Federal Government. However, there was a slightly larger group of respondents that expect negative impacts to their businesses (41%) than those expecting positive impacts from the change in Federal Government (23%).

“Strong leadership, stability, and reliability from all levels of government, and within the business community itself, is critical in helping maintain business confidence in the face of some potential economic turbulence, including inflation, increasing interest rates, labour scarcity, supply chain restraints and increasing costs of employment”.

“Business confidence would be better supported by clearly articulated future planning from all government and public sector bodies that business can rely on”. With that in mind, the new Federal Government and the continuing State Government have a current responsibility to provide clear guidance and leadership to our region around their respective positions on key local projects like CopperString 2.0 and the Hells Gates Dam.”

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