West Mids companies face UK's biggest cuts
Eighteen per cent of small business owners in the West Midlands say they will be forced to shed jobs in the second half of the year. The region has the highest number of expected job cuts in the country, according to Clifton Asset Management (CAM).
Last quarter, 32 per cent of small business owners in the region said they were compelled to cut the size of their workforce - more than any other region in the UK.
“The fact that the rate of job cuts among SMEs shows no sign of falling away reinforces the view of two-thirds of those who took part in our survey that a fully-fledged recovery is still at least 12 months away,” said CAM director Anthony Carty.
The number of expected cuts for the second half of 2010 is up 4 per cent on CAM’s last survey.
Carty said: “Small and medium-sized businesses must return to good health before the UK can pull itself fully out of recession. While it is not the private sector which will bear the brunt of the cuts over the next few years, many SMEs have a strong business relationship on the public sector and will thereby be severely affected.”
