State of Trade Survey

State of Trade Survey 2011 Q4

According to the latest State of Trade survey from the FMB, workloads continued to decline in the final three months of 2011. SME workloads have now fallen in each quarter since Q1 2008: this shows that the sector has been in recession for almost four years. There is expected to be no let-up in the first three months of 2012, with just 14% of respondents anticipating an increase in workloads whilst 44% expect a further decline.