While Waikato businesses appear to be faring better under Alert Level 3, they have had to lay off more staff in the past fortnight and the mood is that businesses are keen to move to Level 2 soon.

The poll of Waikato businesses is conducted by the Waikato Chamber of Commerce every two weeks.

Don Good, executive director of the Chamber, said it was positive to see that at Alert Level 3 or Level 2, almost 58 per cent of respondents said they would never close their business.

“While said they would struggle, that’s a decent number who’ve said they won’t have to close at Level 3 or 2.

“It’s also reassuring to see that almost 92 per cent of people said they were coping ‘easily, no problems’, ‘fine, just’ or ‘okay, but it’s tough’ in response to a question about how they are coping with mental stress.”

In parallel with that, 81 per cent of respondents said their staff were handling Alert Level 3 either very well or well.

“We’re a resilient bunch in the business sector in the Waikato. Not to downplay the challenges and stresses of the situation – it is tough out there, but it’s reassuring to see people are doing okay,” Don said.

And while the numbers paint a picture that the business sector is rallying, comments provided in the survey indicate that businesses want to move to Level 2 as soon as they can.

“We saw comments from people such as ‘the economy needs to get started again now’, ‘we remain optimistic as long as Level 2 isn’t far away’, and ‘if I have to keep my children home longer my business will suffer’,” Don said.

“The sentiment out there tells us that while businesses have dug deep to keep their businesses going and their staff in jobs, they’re keen to move to Level 2 sooner rather than later to ensure revenue and cash flow improves.”

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