Business News Round Up (08/12/2020)
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Scotland must boost productivity amid coronavirus crisis
Scotland must step up efforts to boost lagging productivity rates to help accelerate the recovery of the country’s economy from the slump triggered by the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis, business leaders have said. New analysis found Scotland trailed other parts of the UK or international competitors on 10 of 15 key indicators, compared with nine of 15 in the 2019 report. The authors said the priorities for the Scottish Government should include prioritising the mental health backlog in the health system and developing joined up green transport and infrastructure plans with the UK Government. Businesses must identify opportunities for investment and innovation to improve their performance. They need to engage with and support government schemes to help young people develop careers while ensuring all employees develop the skills needed for success in the digital age. CBI and KPMG also made recommendations for individual businesses, which included testing financial strategies and supply chain resilience; mapping the workforce to identify upskilling opportunities; and considering future physical and technology needs in light of changing trends around ways of working.
City office will return but must adapt quickly, say business leaders
Leading businesses from across the North West say that they expect workers to return to city centre offices after the pandemic, but improvement to the old routine will change. The message, coming during a debate on the Future of the Workplace hosted by regional law firm Napthens, comes as over 1.3 million people in the North West are currently working from home, with three in four employers saying they expect to continue home working in some form beyond the pandemic. Panellists at the event including landlords, developers, investors, and agents said employees are eager to return to offices after eight months of home working, but improvements will be needed to make city centres more appealing than a home office. Improvements including additional parking, more space, flexible rail fares and more focus on health and wellbeing will all be vital to entice workers back to city centres like Manchester and Liverpool. Additionally, city headquarters could be supplemented by satellite offices closer to local towns in order to cut down on daily commutes. We could see a rise in the number of the hub and spoke operating models.
Lockdowns leave retail sales out in the cold during November
UK retail sales increased by only 0.9% in November, according to the latest British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG figures. Over the three months to November, in-store sales of non-food items declined 18.6% on a total and 10.8% on a like-for-like basis. During the same period, however, food sales increased 6.4% on a like-for-like basis and 7% on a total basis. Online non-food sales increased by 47.2% in November, against a growth of 0.3% in November 2019. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said that the disparity between online and in-store sales widened, with the highest online penetration rate since May, at 59.3% – up from 33.2% a year ago.
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/lockdowns-leave-retails-sales-out-23131298
UK job ads surge in November, indicating possible end of recession: Reed
The number of jobs added to reed.co.uk in November grew by 4% when compared to October and was 119% higher than the first month of the lockdown in March. According to Reed, the figures indicate that the recession in the UK may be coming to an end. Over 169,000 jobs were added onto reed.co.uk in November, the highest since February. The growth in job postings in November is a continuation of a UK job market recovery reed.co.uk also recorded in previous months. Job postings also increased between September and October, rising by 15%. Reed.co.uk’s research also shows that the jobs recovery is nationwide, with every region reporting a rise in job opportunities, except Scotland (-8%). Despite facing some of the toughest restrictions in the UK, this was most pronounced in the North West which reported a 16% growth in job postings month-on-month. Similar rises were found elsewhere: Wales (11%), the West Midlands (10%), the East Midlands and North East England (both 9%) and London (2%).