The Business Tendency Survey samples private sector businesses in Jersey. It invites the Chief Executive, Managing Director, or another individual with a general overview of the business for their opinions on the situation of their business.
Latest survey information
The next Business Tendency Survey will run in December 2025. Results from this survey are scheduled to be published on 23rd January 2026.
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. To ensure that reported changes reflect genuine shifts in the views of business directors and not differences in who is surveyed, the sample is longitudinal. This means we survey the same businesses multiple times, allowing us to track how their views change over time. The duration a business remains in the sample depends on its size, with smaller businesses changed more frequently. The sample is reviewed twice a year to include new businesses and account for staffing changes, helping to keep it 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 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 seasonal variations. If it is not practical to do so, please compare with that of 12 months ago and make a note in the comments box.
- Level of business activity 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 business. 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.
- Labour costs are the average cost for all staff-related expenses such as wages, salaries, pensions, social security, training courses, medical insurance, company cars, travel expenses, and other benefits-in-kind.
- Input costs excluding labour are the average cost for all inputs excluding labour by your organisation. Inputs include supplies obtained, stocks/materials bought in, and operational costs. Please try to use a weighted average of costs when responding. For example, if supply costs are the largest share, give them the largest weighting (importance).
- Selling prices/fees for products/services are the prices 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 use a weighted average. For example, if one service accounts for most of your sales and its fees have increased, then give it the largest weighting (importance).
- Level of profits 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, considering changes in turnover, input costs, and mark-ups.
- Workload refers to the amount of work that can be done with current resources such as staffing levels and operational equipment. A sustainable workload means having the right balance between available resources and the level of business activity. Being overloaded indicates that your organisation is operating beyond its capacity. This may mean turning down or deferring work, staff working longer hours than normal, low stock levels in general due to high demand, or being unable to complete tasks or projects within expected timeframes. Being underloaded indicates that your organisation has spare capacity. This may mean staff are underused, equipment or other resources are idle, or there is a lack of demand.
- Limiting refers to any factor that is currently restricting your organisation’s ability to operate efficiently, grow, meet demand, or achieve its goals. Think about your organisation’s primary objectives and assess what barriers are preventing your organisation from achieving them. Some businesses may not wish to grow further and therefore should think about any limitations in their current situation to meet demand or achieve their goals.
- Please select all actions to address the limitations that apply to the responses marked on the question 3. For example, if you found staffing to be a limitation, you might consider recruiting staff. If demand is low, you might increase marketing or adjust pricing to attract customers.
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.