The WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry says business confidence has gone from record lows to a record high over the last year.
The Chamber has just released its latest survey of business expectations for the coming year.
The report found that 64 per cent of firms surveyed said they expect the WA economy to strengthen over the next 12 months.
Last year confidence was at its lowest in the survey’s history with only 6 per cent of respondents expecting the economy to pick up over the course of last year.
CCI economist Dana Mason says a resilient local economy laid the foundation for the sharp rise in confidence.
“The turnaround in business confidence does partially reflect that conditions here have held up a lot better than other areas.”
She says the respondents told the Chamber that labour shortages are the number one concern for their business in the year ahead.
“They’re concerned that they won’t be able to find the workers that they simply need to operate their businesses and to grow their operations.”
Ms Mason says local firms are also concerned about the cost of attracting and retaining expertise.
“They’re also worried about the pressure this will put on their wages bill.”
But, she says the latest result is great news for the future of the WA economy.
“Just a year earlier business confidence was at a record low level, so to turn around from a record low to a record high has been a very swift turnaround and this has really been driven by an improvement in overall operating conditions.”
