Three-quarters of small businesses are looking to increase their workforce this year, a survey has found.
This is an increase on 48% showing intentions to hire in 2011, as only one in five will be considering redundancies, down from 51% in 2011, the survey of 1,000 small businesses by Peninsula Business Services revealed.
The Bank of England revealing inflation had dropped again to 3.6% yesterday will have also been of good news to small businesses and could help encourage growth plans, which have been put on the backburner in recent months, to be put into action.
Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula commented on the findings ‘It is great to see optimism amongst small businesses; their intention to start recruiting again is significantly good news.
‘Small firms over the last 12 months have tightened their belt, become leaner and fitter to face new challenges, yet we are not completely out of the woods yet.’
As news also broke that the unemployment rate had risen again to 8.4% in January, the government will be hoping hiring plans are put into motion sooner rather than later in 2012.