The outlook for businesses on the Sunshine Coast for the next three months is looking brighter, according to figures released today from the Sunshine Coast Business Confidence Survey (June Quarter).
The figures show an increase in business confidence from 73 percent in April to 79.7 percent for the next quarter, according to Anne Lawrence, co-owner of Noosa Boardroom who conducted the survey.
“It would seem that business can start to breathe a sigh of relief as confidence and the expectation of what is to come is increasingly upbeat,” Ms Lawrence said.
“In addition the data trend over the past two quarters in relation to gross sales revenue, profitability, staffing levels and capital investment is all moving upwards between three and six percent.”
Senior Consultant with the AEC Group Michael Campbell said the optimism might be influenced by the strong presence of businesses in the accommodation, cafe and restaurant sector as well as the warming onset of Spring.
“There must be something to the Sunshine Coast lifestyle because despite the worsening conditions in recent months, businesses remain extremely upbeat about the future,” he said.
The second Sunshine Coast wide Business Confidence survey was conducted online over three weeks and consisted of six questions targeting business owners across the entire Sunshine Coast region to gain a representative view of business confidence across all sectors.
This quarter the survey included a focus question on the tourism industry to gain an understanding of how this particular sector is faring in the economic downturn.
The recent figures also showed the Sunshine Coast appeared to be digging in to weather the worsening job market.
Mr Campbell said the ANZ Jobs advertisement series which tracked advertised positions in print and on-line media, demonstrated that the situation was tough around Australia, with a 1.7 percent drop in advertised jobs in July (following a 6.7 percent drop in June). Currently, there were 51.9 percent fewer jobs advertised than a year ago.
“On the Sunshine Coast, almost two-thirds of survey respondents indicate that they intend to maintain current staffing levels, which is a very good thing in deteriorating business conditions,” Mr Campbell said.
The figures also showed that some business had been doing it tough over the past three months with the percentage of businesses reporting weaker results over the past three months increasing by almost 7 percent since January. Companies reporting stronger results over the past three months have decreased by 3.4 percent.
“We asked business to tell it how it was and we are seeing some realistic data of how business is suffering, however it is heartening to see business is expecting the next three months to be positive,” Ms Lawrence said.
Chief Executive Officer Tourism Sunshine Coast Russell Mason said the tourism focus in the most recent Sunshine Coast Business Confidence Survey would provide a timely and valuable addition to the Sunshine Coast Tourism partnership’s Quarterly Regional Research Report.
“The addition of a tourism question to the survey demonstrates the value of tourism to this region,” he said.
“Through the survey findings, the Sunshine Coast Tourism partnership (Tourism Sunshine Coast, Caloundra Tourism, Discover Maroochy and Tourism Noosa) will be able to gain greater insight into the ‘business health’ of the tourism industry given the current economic conditions and uncertain seasonal trends.
“The results will help guide the activity of Tourism Sunshine Coast and the industry for this period.”
Economic Development Portfolio Leader for the Sunshine Coast Council Cr Lew Brennan said he was buoyed by the latest business confidence survey results.
“We can still feel optimistic that the Sunshine Coast is ahead of the rest of the State in its business confidence and as we move into the next quarter we will see a clearer pattern emerge and have a good base to use as a benchmark for our business confidence,” he said.
“It is now more important than ever that we all focus on buying local and supporting local business and even having a 'staycation' rather than a vacation until we fully recover from the trends and impacts effecting the world’s economy."
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