Business remains cautious despite rising optimism

SCOTTISH business are among the most confident in the UK, with 64 per cent planning to create jobs over the next 12 months, a survey by Barclays has suggested.

The bank’s job creation report ranked Scotland as the second most-optimistic part of Britain, after the London area. The outcome is also an improvement on last year, when 56 per cent of Scots firms said they expected to be hiring.

But the vast majority of business leaders still said a pick-up in sales had to materialise before they started hiring, with Scots being more cautious in that respect than their counterparts south of the Border.

Ally Scott, managing director of corporate banking for Barclays in Scotland, said some employers still had an aversion to hiring people before sales increased, displaying a reticence to invest for growth.

“Deferring investment is often short-sighted, whether it is in jobs, new premises or exploring new markets,” he said.

“If uncertainty is the new normal, companies need to have greater confidence in their own ability to grow proactively over the long term, with job creation vital for a sustainable economic recovery.”

The Barclays’ Job Creation Survey 2012 questioned more than 600 senior managers at British businesses of all sizes.

It also found that Scottish firms overwhelmingly viewed government efforts to remove barriers to job creation as being ineffectual, with just 7 per cent reporting any positive impact at all.