Activity rises for services sector

ACTIVITY in the services sector in Otago and Southland has picked up after two months in decline.

The Otago Southland Employers’ Association’s Performance of Services Index (PSI) gave the sector a score of 50.3 points for the month of October.

A PSI reading above 50 indicates services are generally expanding; below 50 that it is declining.

In September the score was 44.6, while in August it fell as low as 34.6.

‘‘This is a better result than the last two months, but this is still only just into expansion mode,’’ OSEA chief executive Virginia Nicholls said.

‘‘The service industry continues to languish due to the Covid19 disruptions.’’

Mrs Nicholls reminded businesses a Covid19 leave support scheme was available for businesses when staff needed to selfisolate and could not work from home, in light of the recent community case in Auckland.

She also said it reinforced the need for Covid tracer QR codes to be available in stores and the importance of regular scanning.

The retail and hospitality industries were relying on a stable Christmas trading period, which would be ‘‘crucial’’, she said.

The October school holidays were busy for tourism and hospitality businesses and Dunedin hosting a Ranfurly Shield match towards the start of the month showed the importance of events for the service industries.

A spring blizzard with late snowfalls helped skifields during the holidays as well.

In Central Otago the tourism and hospitality industries were continuing to adjust to the new domestic tourism requirements, Mrs Nicholls said.

‘‘They are also finding it difficult to fill skilled and unskilled staff.’’

The tourism industry would like to see a safe plan around the transtasman bubble with the Australian states that had Covid under control.

The services provided to the construction sector have been busy.

The index scored activity and sales levels, stocks and inventories and supplier deliveries above 50, while orders and new business were the same as the previous month.

Employment levels were less than 50 and were in decline.