Contractors might be forgiven for feeling less than positive following the recent news about economic performance, gloomy reports on business surveys and warnings to the Chancellor from the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But they should stay positive and keep contracting.
If you look beneath the headlines and at the company, survey and research news that does not garner much reporting, you can see that there is plenty of ‘under the radar’ news about how well companies and sectors are doing now, and are forecast to do in the months ahead.
A good example is the recent Confederation of British Industry (CBI) PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Financial Services Survey. On its publication, the Guardian’s headline screamed “Depressed banking sector raises spectre of triple-dip recession.”
It wasn’t until paragraph 14 (the fourth from the end) that the underlying story was revealed: that of a financial sector showing a “dramatic return to optimism”, according to PwC’s financial services leader Kevin Burrowes. The report also showed that the sector was bullish about 2013 and predicting improved market conditions.
And contractors look set to benefit considerably if the survey’s predictions of acute skills shortages later in the year turn into reality.
We’ve seen, heard and read much about the high profile failures in the high street since the start of 2013: Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster. But did we hear that Moss Bros Group, N Brown, Ocado, Halfords, Burberry, Greene King, JD Wetherspoon, Dixons Retail Group and Home Retail Group (the Argos and Homebase owner) all posted positive results in the same week as HMV and Blockbuster went down? Not to mention above expectation performance from house builders Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey, Jupiter Fund Management and Experian during the same period.
Oil & Gas UK tells us that new North Sea projects worth £8bn have been announced in the last six months, 167 new exploration licenses have been granted, 30 new offshore developments were approved and a further 28 new oil and gas fields are forecast to gain approval during 2013.
Few of these achievements have made it beyond the trade media, yet they will create tens of thousands of new contracts and jobs, as well as adding to industrial output and reducing the UK’s energy dependence on imports.
And that’s not all: A brand new ‘Trade in Value-Added’ measure, developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), highlights the key role in global trade that is played by the UK. According to the OECD’s data, the UK occupies a unique niche in the global supply chains for products and services.
Both our manufacturing and services exports incorporate lower ‘foreign value-added’ than our global competitors, which demonstrates the high value of UK manufacturing and our business, financial and professional services sectors. The UK is the only global economy that includes financial services exports in its top five.
The top UK exports are chemicals/minerals in first place, financial services in second and business services in third, followed by transport in fourth and electrical equipment fifth.
Our manufacturing sector is a top-five ‘foreign value-added’ contributor to the manufacturing industries of the USA, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, India, South Africa, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Ireland. So don’t ever let anyone tell you we don’t make things in the UK anymore.
Sure there is worrying news, too, such as the fact that the UK’s GDP fell in the final quarter of 2012. But taking all the evidence in the round, it would seem that the UK might not be doing so badly after all – and certainly continues to offer contractors interesting, enjoyable and profitable opportunities.
Carry On Contracting!