New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 23.3% of businesses have ceased trading temporarily since the outbreak of Covid-19, while 0.6% have ceased trading permanently and 76% continue to trade.
The CSO today published the first results of its Business Impact of Covid-19 Survey, the first of a temporary fortnightly snapshot of how the coronavris crisis is affecting business in Ireland.
The online survey was sent to a sample of 3,000 businesses and the information was collected between Monday 20 and Friday 24 April. The response rate to the survey was 26.4%.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
70.8% of construction enterprises that took part in the survey had ceased trading either temporarily or permanently, while 88.1% of accommodation and food services had ceased trading.
Of the Government supports available to businesses, 47.1% said they had utilised the Revenue Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, while 51.6% said they had not availed of any supports.
Over 54% of responding enterprises also said their turnover over the five-week period from March 16 to April 19 was significantly lower than normal due to Covid-19.
16.2% of responding enterprises said their turnover was slightly lower than normal.
A total of 70.4% of companies responded that their turnover was lower than normal, the CSO added.
The new survey also shows about a third of companies have let staff go or have introduced reduced working hours, while 69% of businesses have implemented some form of remote working.
Today's CSO figures to a survey of manufacturing companies by AIB today which showed that new orders, exports and jobs all fell at record rates in April.
