Canterbury businesses believe the regional economy will deteriorate further before it gets better.

The Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce has released its’ findings from the Quarterly Canterbury Business Survey.

Chief Executive of Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Leeann Watson said half of businesses within the Canterbury region expect economic conditions to worsen in a years’ time, compared to today.

“That is not an insignificant number.

Despite the economic pessimism, businesses are still willing to continue investing in new equipment and new personnel with sixty percent stating they will do so within the next year.”

The constrained labour market and access to workers from overseas continues to be the biggest barrier to business.

75 percent of businesses were finding it more difficult to acquire new staff than this time last year.

50 percent were finding it more difficult to retain staff.

Labour market challenges were causing significant consequences for business.

40 percent had turned down business opportunities as a result, 53 percent reported workload increasing for current staff, and 48 percent reported that this had a negative impact on staff wellbeing.

“Eight in ten businesses do not support the Government’s COVID-19 policy to require self-isolation of household contacts, if they are not sick, which is having a significant impact on productivity in an already constrained labour market .