Record Number Of Small Business In UK

The Office for National Statistics and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills recently released statistics concerning small and medium sized enterprises for the UK and regions for 2009. It gives estimates of the numbers of SMEs in the UK the employment they provide and their turnover.

The release says that there were 4.8m enterprises in the private sector at the beginning of 2009, an increase of 1.1% or 51,000 on 2008 and the highest number since these records began in 1994. They employed 22.8m people and their combined turnover was an estimated £3,200bn. Although SMEs account for 99.9% of all enterprises, they accounted for 59.8% of private sector employment and only 49% of private sector turnover. The turnover increased in 2009 by an estimated 5.8% or £1,589bn on 2008.

Most, 99.3%, of the SMEs were small (0-49 employees) and only 27,000 were medium sized (50-249). There were only 6,000 large enterprises (over 250 employees) in the UK in 2008. The number of people employed by SMEs fell by 309,000 or -1.3% since 2008. The number of sole proprietorships increased for the seventh year in a row, by 65,000, to 3.1m. The total number of businesses without employees was 3.6m, up 68,000. They account for 74.8% of all private sector enterprises and a combined turnover of £240bn at the beginning of 2008. Partnerships decreased by 18,000 to 444,000.

Exports To Lead Growth Next Month

Medium sized firms are reporting an increase in confidence for the first time since April 2007. They are expecting a growth in orders despite a marked fall in the volume of total new orders in July. Export orders also continue to decline but again firms are increasingly optimistic about exports. As with orders, so output is also slowing, but the optimism about exports includes leading a return to growth in the next quarter.

The quarterly CBI report on SMEs says that business remains difficult but although the indications are that business is still falling it will improve over the next three months. The position of the pound has not made much difference to small and medium sized businesses and their exports but they are responding to improved credit conditions. Firms are still running down stocks and working below capacity.