Skills shortages, lack of applicants, transport issues: the scale of the labour market challenges facing businesses in Cumbria

University of Cumbria Emeritus Professor Frank Peck writes about business challenges in Cumbria. Latest data released by National Statistics show that the UK very narrowly avoided being in a technical “recession” in the second half of 2022. GDP fell by -0.2 per cent in the third quarter (July-Sept) followed by zero growth in the fourth quarter (Oct-Dec). The year did not end well though – the month of December witnessed a drop of -0.5 per cent in GDP associated with a poor performance in the service sector (-0.8 per cent). There were particular declines in activity in “human health and social work”, “education”, “arts, entertainment and recreation” and “transport and storage”