April 5th, 2022.



More than half a million employees are at risk of losing their jobs as small businesses deal with heightened challenges.

According to research by Quantuma, 6,500 small and medium-sized businesses are at a higher-than-average risk of insolvency as the combined effects of rising costs, higher taxes, fallout from Brexit and staff shortages due to the pandemic take their toll.

The advisory firm expects insolvencies this year to increase by 21 per cent compared to 2021. It predicts 19,000 businesses are likely to fail by 2024 – the highest number of corporate insolvencies in a decade.

Start-ups that are less than three years old are at particular risk, it says.

Quantuma’s research shows staff levels remain low. Small businesses employed 8.4 per cent fewer people than in February 2020, with the hospitality industry having 22.7 per cent fewer jobs than two years ago following the pandemic, while small manufacturing firms have 15.1 per cent fewer jobs available.

For the full story at smallbusiness.co.uk CLICK HERE.