Business insights and impact on the UK economy: 5 September 2024

• More than three quarters (77%) of businesses reported their hourly wages stayed the same in July 2024 compared with June 2024, a 15-percentage point increase compared with April 2024; this increase in proportion may be because the time period no longer covers the April 2024 National Living Wage increases.

• In late August 2024, one in five (20%) businesses reported an increase in staffing costs (including wages, bonuses, national insurance and pension contributions) over the last three months, down 12 percentage points from late May 2024, while 17% of businesses expect staffing costs to increase over the next three months.

• In late August 2024, 60% of businesses with 10 or more employees reported they had not experienced any challenges as a result of worker shortages; in contrast, the most reported challenge experienced by businesses as a result of worker shortages was employees working increased hours (20%).

• In late August 2024, more than one in five (21%) businesses reported they are either using, or intending to use, increased home working as a permanent business model going forward; of those businesses, 56% reported reduced overheads as a reason for this.

The data presented in this bulletin are the final results from Wave 115 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), which was live from 19 August to 1 September 2024.

Data reported within BICS bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example, sampling variability and non-sampling error. Further information on quality is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI), and we regularly update confidence intervals associated with the survey questions.

Single-site weighted regional estimates up to Wave 106 are available in our Business insights and impact on the UK subnational single-site economy: May 2024 article.

The percentage of businesses that reported they were trading in late August 2024 was 95%, with 86% fully trading, and 9% partially trading (for example, trading with reduced hours or staff numbers). Meanwhile, 3% of businesses reported "temporarily paused trading", and 2% reported "permanently ceased trading" as their business's trading status.

Access to microdata

You can access the microdata for Waves 1 to 114 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) through the Secure Research Service (SRS). The BICS microdata for each wave are released on a rolling basis in the week following the publication of each wave. The microdata are made confidential and do not disclose information on any specific business.

Only researchers accredited under the Digital Economy Act, as explained on the UK Statistics Authority website are able to access data in the SRS. You can apply for accreditation through the Research Accreditation Service (RAS). You need to have relevant academic or work experience and must successfully attend and complete the assessed Safe Researcher Training.

To conduct analysis with microdata from the SRS, a project application must be submitted to the Research Accreditation Panel (RAP), as explained on the UK Statistics Authority website. To access the SRS, you must also work for an organisation with an Assured Organisational Connectivity agreement in place.

Reporting unit

The reporting unit is the business unit to which questionnaires are sent. The response from the reporting unit can cover the enterprise as a whole, or parts of the enterprise identified by lists of local units.

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI, which was updated on 24 January 2022.

The BICS is voluntary, and the results are official statistics in development. More information is available in our Guide to official statistics in development.

The results are based on responses from the voluntary fortnightly BICS, which captures businesses' views on financial performance, workforce, prices, trade and business resilience. The Wave 115 survey was live for the period 19 August to 1 September 2024. For full details of the survey questions used, see our Business Insights and Conditions Survey questions: 19 August to 1 September article.

Coverage

The BICS sampling frame is based on the same industries as our Monthly Business Survey (MBS). The MBS covers the UK for production industries only, and Great Britain for construction, retail and services industries. The MBS is an important input to the output measure of gross domestic product (GDP), which includes monthly GDP.

For detailed information on the industries covered by the MBS and BICS, see our GDP(o) data sources catalogue. The following are some industries that are excluded from MBS and BICS:

• agriculture

• oil and gas extraction

• energy generation and supply

• public administration and defence

• public provision of education and health

• finance and insurance

For more information on the methodology of producing the BICS, such as weighting, please see our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI report.

Strengths and limitations

More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI.