The Business Tendency Survey samples private sector businesses in Jersey. The survey asks the Chief Executive or Managing Director of sampled businesses for their opinions on the current situation of their business compared with three months previously, and for their expectations for the next three months.
Latest survey information
The Business Tendency Survey is currently paused.
How we select organisations to take part
To ensure survey responses are representative of Jersey’s businesses, we sample them randomly. The random sampling is stratified by business size (employment on a full‐time equivalent, FTE,] basis) and industrial sector (UK SIC 2007). All businesses with more than 50 FTE employees are sampled, with lower proportions sampled in smaller size brackets. So that we can be confident that reported changes are due to changes in the views of business directors, and not due to changes in which business directors we survey, the sample is longitudinal. This means we survey businesses multiple times, so that we can measure changes in their views over time. The length of time a business is sampled is dependent on its size, with smaller businesses changed more frequently. The sample is reviewed twice yearly to incorporate new businesses and changes in staffing, in order that the sample remains representative of Jersey’s economy.
It is important to complete the Business Tendency Survey if you are sampled. The results of this survey are used by the Fiscal Policy Panel (FPP) to produce economic forecasts, which in turn are used by the government, local businesses, and organisations to plan for the future. We use voluntary surveys where possible, but this is dependent on enough businesses completing the survey.
Guidance and FAQs
Please try to exclude normal seasonal variations from your responses. For example, activity in hotels is typically higher in the summer than in spring, so do not tick ‘higher’ unless business activity is higher than three months ago excluding normal seasonal variations.
- Level of business activity / output: This is the total amount of work undertaken by your organisation. Business activity can be thought of as gross income, chargeable hours worked, turnover or the number of products produced. The measure of business activity used depends on the nature of your organisation. For example, a legal firm may use the number of chargeable hours worked. A bank may decide to use values of fees, commission and premium income.
- Incoming new business / new orders: This is the amount of new business placed with your organisation. This may include any new clients, new orders or contracts from existing clients or any new contracts.
- Level of capacity utilisation: This is your current business activity relative to ‘normal capacity’. Please tick ‘above capacity’ if your current business activity is above its normal capacity (e.g. because your organisation is busier than normal or staff are working longer hours than normal). Please tick ‘below capacity’ if your current business activity is below its normal capacity (e.g. because your organisation is quieter than normal or staff are working shorter hours than normal).
- Average cost of inputs: This is the average cost for all inputs used by your organisation. Inputs include supplies obtained, stocks/materials bought in and costs of employees, including wages, salaries and pension costs paid by your organisation. Please try to give a weighted average of costs. For example, if employment costs are the largest share, give them the largest weighting (i.e. importance) when answering the question.
- Average prices that you charge for your products: This is the price charged per item or per unit of time on average. For example, a legal firm will know how much they charge an hour. However, if your organisation offers various services/products then please try to give a weighted average. For example, if one service accounts for most of your sales and its prices have increased then give it the largest weighting (i.e. importance) when answering the question by indicating that prices have risen on average.
- Profitability: This is the total profits earned on all activities of your organisation. If your organisation does not calculate profits over the most recent three months, please try to estimate how your profitability has changed, taking into account changes in turnover, changes in input costs and changes in mark-ups/spreads over input costs.
- Employment: This is the number of employees employed on average. Count two part-time employees as equivalent to one full-time employee. For example, if two part-time employees resigned and one full-time employee was taken on, please count this as no net change and tick ‘same’. Ignore seasonal or temporary hirings.
- Business optimism: This refers to your confidence or optimism about the overall business situation in your sector generally. Unlike the previous questions, it is not about what is actually happening to your organisation at present, but asks about your opinions for your sector generally.
How the data is used
Reports using this survey data can be found on our release calendar. These reports are used by the Fiscal Policy Panel (FPP) to produce economic forecasts, as well as by local businesses and organisations to plan for the future.