Business News Round Up (10/02/2020)

Lacking digital skills costs £10 billion in lost productivity

A global study has revealed the UK is facing major economic losses in productivity as a result of failure to invest in digital oriented education in the workplace. The report from Qlik and Accenture has found that failure to invest in data skills training is costing UK businesses £10 billion in lost productivity every year. Of all the respondents surveyed, UK businesses were least likely to have spent significant amounts of time in mainstream education learning to use data in the workplace, with only 10% saying they had encountered the topic, compared with 12% in Australia, 14% in France and Singapore – the next worst performers. Meanwhile, a huge 52% of respondents in India said that they had spent plenty of time in their education learning to apply data.

https://www.consultancy.uk/news/23685/lacking-digital-skills-costs-10-billion-in-lost-productivity

Scottish business activity and output expectations increased in January

Scotland’s private sector economy returned to growth in January, recording its strongest expansion for 14 months as services output rose and manufacturing contracted at a slower pace, according to a new survey. The latest Royal Bank of Scotland Purchasing Managers’ Index report showed a rise in January following an increase in new business, alongside a mild rise in workforce numbers. The seasonally adjusted headline RBS Business Activity Index – a measure of combined manufacturing and service sector output – posted 52.0 in January, up from 50.0 in December, signalling a modest increase in Scottish private sector activity following stagnant output in December.

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-business-activity-output-expectations-21464590

Output growth resumes across North West amid renewed increase in new business

Business activity improved in the North West in January as output growth increased and Brexit uncertainty began to ease, according to the latest NatWest Purchasing Managers’ Index. The PMI, a seasonally adjusted index that measures the change in combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors, reported 51.7 in January, up from 48.7 in December as demand for local goods and services expanded for the first time since April 2019.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/18220521.scottish-economy-shows-return-growth/

Digital connectivity spend set to double in 2020/21 budget

Scottish Government spending on digital connectivity infrastructure projects is to double in the 2020/2021 budget as a result of a ‘lack of targeted investment from the UK Government to address infrastructure gaps in Scotland’, Scotland’s digital economy and public finance minister has announced.

https://futurescot.com/digital-connectivity-spend-set-to-double-in-2020-21-budget/