Finishing The Year With Renewed Confidence

The PVW Partners’ December 2023 quarterly Business Confidence survey shows that business confidence remains in positive territory with a meaningful increase to round out 2023. The December 2023 quarter resulted in an index of 3.9, a 2.2 point increase from the previous quarter and this sees the index just higher than it was in December 2022.

Carl Valentine, PVW Partners Managing Partner said, “It’s great to see the year finishing with higher levels of business confidence, setting the scene for a positive 2024 for many Townsville businesses. Business confidence throughout 2023 was lower than recorded in 2021 and 2022 and it seems that many businesses used 2023 to consolidate operations, set new strategies for growth and implement plans to adapt to a higher cost and resource constrained market, especially when it comes to labour inputs”. 

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.

Carl Valentine observed “while expectations around growth in employment levels remains subdued relative to recent years, our local businesses are expecting more employment growth than previously reported in 2023. This may reflect some increased optimism in the ability of our business managers to find and attract the right people to their businesses notwithstanding the labour market remains tight and the availability of skilled labour remains a key business challenge”.

Carl Valentine went onto comment “expenditure on staff training has continued to be one of the strongest components of our index with this quarter only 8% of employers reporting they expected to reduce expenditure on staff training. It is now a clear trend that our business owners continue to invest in the development of their people to better equip them to perform their current role or take on additional responsibilities, proactively managing what would otherwise be gaps in their organisations”.

Carl Valentine concluded that “every economic cycle brings its challenges and opportunities with 2023 bringing a good number of both. Our business owners and managers continue to step up to the plate to meet those challenges head on and evolve their businesses to capitalise on opportunities. 2024 will no doubt continue to see our business leaders using all their skills and expertise to drive our regional economy forward”.

Townsville Business Confidence Change Index – 5 year history