CONTRACTORS LOOKING TO EXPAND – FICA SURVEY

• Business confidence overall has increased from the past survey in Feb 2017 with 93% of contractors in expecting business conditions to improve or stay the same over the next six months. • 92% of respondents are expecting to either increase or maintain the number of employees. Only 5 respondents are expecting to reduce their number of employees.

• The majority of contractors surveyed expect to be investing in their business, although the proportion is lower than the Feb 2017 survey. 46% intend to invest for expansion and 25% are planning on replacing equipment.

• There has been a significant increase (to 81% in July 2017) in the proportion of logging contractors who feel well informed by their major customers. The proportion of respondents not receiving adequate information decreased by 9% from the previous survey.

• 93% of logging contractors would recommend their industry as a good place to work, a slight increase from the February

2017 survey. Over the past 5 surveys we have seen a consistent increase in recommendation going from 64% (Jul 2015), 79% (Feb 2016), 89% (Jun 2016), 89% (Feb 2017) and 93% (Jul 2017).