SME's confident

 SMEs confident of employment growth

Research by Yorkshire Bank shows 17% of SMEs are planning to invest additional funds into hiring new staff in the next 12 months, while 28% of Yorkshire and Humber SMEs will also invest more money into staff training. However, nearly two-thirds (60%) of SMEs believe the introduction of the National Living Wage in 2016 will lead to an increase in staff costs. Some 28% expect their salary costs to go up by as much as 10% as a result of the NLW introduction. But two in every five SMEs in Yorkshire and the Humber think it will have no impact on their salary costs at all. Across the UK, the belief that salary costs will increase is most acute in businesses with between 50 and 100 employees.

Yorkshire Post  (30/12/2015)