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Trading companies were asked how their turnover in January 2026 compared with December 2025, omitting any seasonal trading. Information are outlined in the middle of the period of each wave. Nearly a third (31%) of trading companies reported that their turnover had decreased in January 2026 compared with the previous month.

Nevertheless, the movements are broadly in line with those observed around this time in previous years, with peaks in December followed by small falls in January. The industries with the greatest percentage reporting that turnover decreased in January 2026 were: the lodging and food service activities market (52%, which is a 21 portion point increase from December 2025) the other services industry (45%) the arts, entertainment and entertainment market (40%) Around 16% of trading businesses reported that their turnover increased in January 2026, which was a 3 portion point increase compared to December 2025.

For trading organizations with 10 or more workers, 33% reported that their turnover had reduced, which was broadly steady compared to December and January 2025. More than one in 5 (23%) businesses reported that their turnover had increased, up 2 portion points compared with December 2025. Normally, the percentage of organizations reporting that their turnover increased correlated to the size of business.

The exception to this was the percentage for organizations with 250 or more employees, which was 25%, and 5 percentage points lower than December 2025 (30%). Trading companies were asked how they expect their turnover to alter in the coming month. This can then be utilized to anticipate how business's turnover will in fact alter once that calendar month concludes.

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Trends in between expected turnover and actual turnover have broadly moved in the exact same direction, the movements for expectations tend to be bigger. Care should be taken when translating expectations questions, as the workers reacting on behalf of organizations may not have full oversight of all of their organization's future expectations.

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More than one in 5 (21%) trading organizations anticipate their turnover to increase in March 2026. This is a 6 percentage point increase from February 2026 however was broadly steady compared to expectations for March 2025 (22%). The proportion of trading services expecting a boost in January 2026 was 13%, while the percentage that reported a real boost in turnover in January 2026 was 16%, suggesting a minor pessimism in services expectations.

The patterns have actually broadly followed each other given that the concerns were introduced in April 2022. The results for March 2026 follow the pattern from previous years, with the percentage of organizations expecting turnover to increase peaking after a decline in January. Larger businesses were most likely to expect a boost in turnover in March, with the proportion varying from 20% for services with 0 to 9 employees, to 42% for companies with 100 to 249 workers.

For presentational functions, some response options have been eliminated. Information are plotted in the middle of the duration of each wave.

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The proportion of trading services that expected a decline in January 2026 was 25%, while the proportion that reported a real reduction in turnover in January 2026 was 31%. The percentage of services expecting turnover to reduce for a specific month ahead of time has actually remained substantially lower than the percentage of companies reporting an actual reduction because month because April 2022.

Expectations for turnover to decrease have consistently followed the exact same trend, as real reported turnover decreases throughout this time. Trading companies were asked what obstacles, if any, were affecting their turnover in early February 2026. Around 3 in 10 (30%) trading businesses reported that financial uncertainty was having an impact on their turnover, which was broadly stable with early January 2026.

This is broadly stable compared to early January 2026 and 2 portion points down compared with a year ago. For trading services with 10 or more workers, cost of labour was the most frequently reported difficulty, at 36%. This was broadly stable compared to early January 2026. Organizations with 10 to 49 employees were more most likely to report expense of labour as an obstacle than services with 250 or more employees (37%, compared to 20%). One in 5 (20%) trading businesses with 10 or more staff members indicated that they were not presently experiencing any turnover difficulties in early February 2026. Additional details on financial efficiency, including all response choices categorised by industry and size band, are offered in our accompanying dataset.