News
76% of businesses still trading despite Covid-19 – CSO
The Central Statistics Office has found that a majority of companies have continued to trade through the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the second of the CSO’s new Covid-19 business surveys, conducted in the week beginning May 3, 76% of companies which responded said they were continuing to trade.
But 23.9% indicated they had ceased trading either temporarily or permanently.
The percentage of construction companies which had ceased trading was higher at 66.7% while the percentage of firms in the accommodation and food sector was 69.1%.
This compares with just 8.7% in the information and communications sector and 14.5% for companies engaged in industry.
An average of just over 70% of companies reported lower than normal sales. Exports sales fell for 53.8% of companies but 37.7% said their exports were unaffected.
The CSO also said that a majority of firms found that the price of supplies and sales had not changed more than normal.
A third of companies said they had let workers go temporarily, while 36.7% reported staff working on fewer hours.
A further 23% said they had cancelled or delayed recruitment plans, while 21.2% reported no change to their workforce or hours worked.
Meanwhile, a third of companies surveyed said lower productivity was having a high impact on business.
53.2% of businesses have implemented some social distancing measures. This increases to 77.4% of manufacturing companies.
Today’s figures show that 70% of companies now have some arrangements for remote working. However, only 30.5% of companies have the majority of their employees working remotely.
Just over half – 53.5% -, of businesses said cashflow difficulties were having a moderate or high impact on their business, rising to 90.5% of in the food and accommodation sector.
However, 68.1% reported no change in their ability to access finance.
Just under half said they were confident they had the financial resources to continue to operate longer than six months.
Article Source: Click Here