7% of UK businesses saw global supply chain disruption in Jul: ONS

London: Sixty-seven per cent of trading UK businesses with 10 or more employees reported that they were able to get the materials, goods or services they needed in July from within the country without experiencing supply issues, an official survey found.

Only 7 per cent of such businesses experienced global supply chain disruption, broadly stable with June.

Sixty-seven per cent of trading UK businesses with 10 or more employees reported that they were able to get the materials, goods or services they needed in July from within the country without experiencing supply issues, according to a survey by the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The figure rose to 78 per cent when including businesses that had to change suppliers or find alternative solutions to do so.

Seven per cent of businesses with 10 or more employees experienced global supply chain disruption, broadly stable with June 2023. However, this is the lowest proportion reported since the question was introduced in December 2021, ONS said in a release.

Two-thirds of businesses reported some form of concern for their business for September this year; this has slowly fallen over time and is the lowest percentage reported since a peak of 76% in November 2022.

Seven per cent of businesses were affected by industrial action in July this year. Eleven per cent of businesses reported that their employees’ hourly wages had increased in July compared with June; this was 19 per cent for businesses with 10 or more employees.

Again, 11 per cent of businesses experienced worker shortages in late August; this is down 2 percentage points from mid-July. Forty-five per cent of those businesses reported they were unable to meet demands because of the shortages.