Manufacturing Holding it's own

ONS Recent blog on the aftermath of the restrictions in the UK economy and what it might mean for the the near future. I've picked out the salient points if you don't have time to read it:

Shortly after social distancing measures and travel restrictions came into force around one-quarter of UK businesses temporarily closed or paused trading. 

Since then that proportion has gradually declined to 18% in the latest period.

One quarter of businesses said they expected to restart trading in the next four weeks.

Another 30% in more than 4 weeks. 

If those predictions are born out, the proportion of firms that have paused trading will fall to under 10% of all companies.

45% of paused businesses said they weren’t sure when they would be able to restart trading, reflecting the high levels of uncertainty that many UK businesses continue to face. 

Businesses may have responded that they were not sure when they would restart trading prior to the government announcement about non-essential retailers on the 26 May 2020.

This is not a uniform picture across industry. There is a significant divergence in business impact across different industries. 

In real estate, water & waste, professional, scientific and technical services, fewer than 5% of businesses paused trading. 

Information & communication, transportation & storage, and Manufacturing were only a little higher.

Two industries have been particularly hard hit: around three-quarters of businesses in accommodation & food services, arts, entertainment & recreation, have temporarily closed. 

The vast majority of these expect their businesses will continue to be on hold in four weeks’ time.

CASH: In the latest BICS survey businesses were asked ‘how long do you think your enterprise’s cash reserves will last?’ 

4% said they had no cash reserves with another 4% saying they had less than one month’s reserves. 23% said they had enough for one to three months. Again manufacturing is in the middle ground bracket.

END NOTE: In more positive news, to date the ONS business surveys have found only a very small proportion (0.5% or less per survey wave) of businesses reporting that they had permanently ceased trading. 

Still a way to go but overall, Manufacturing seems to be holding it's own which is great news for the sector I am most passionate about in the UK.