Business confidence rises, faces headwinds

Tony Collins.

Business confidence is still on the up, according to Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Tony Collins, despite concerns about agriculture and infrastructure.

Mr Collins said the general business situation in the Northern region continues to be confident, with a net 29 per cent of respondents in the Chamber's May-quarter business confidence survey believing the business situation in New Zealand will improve over the next six months compared with just 25 per cent with this view last February.

However, Mr Collins said there was some apprehension in the region, with a net 40 per cent of business owners predicting their business situation will improve, compared with 45 per cent in February. He added that fall reflected concerns about the agricultural sector and investment in critical infrastructure needed to cope with regional growth.

Mr Collins said other survey findings included:

- 31 per cent of businesses expect it to be harder to find skills in the next three months, up from the 29 per cent in the February.

- 28 per cent of respondents expect interest rates to fall over the next 12 months compared with just 13 per cent expecting them to increase.

- 35 per cent of respondents report demand is the factor most limiting their ability expand, followed by capacity (19 per cent), finance (17 per cent) and labour (16 per cent).

Mr Collins said, while businesses' inability to find skilled labour was reasonably constant, it was a concern.

"Often employers will say it's the simple things they're looking for in employees, such as having a full driver's licence, basic literacy, personal hygiene and punctuality."

He said unemployment is still comparatively high in Northland but acknowledged there was no easy fix to creating jobs.

"If there's difficulty in finding employment in the region, there will be difficulty in the region growing,"

However, one of the real issues is for unemployed people to gain the sort of experience employers want.

Mr Collins suggested this is where educators and training providers could work with businesses to provide internships and work experience opportunities to meet workers' and business' needs.

He said businesses also needed to look further than regional and national boundaries, where possible.

We need to do much more to encourage businesses to get into exporting, Mr Collins said.