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Trading businesses were asked how their turnover in January 2026 compared with December 2025, excluding any seasonal trading. Data are plotted in the middle of the period of each wave. Almost a 3rd (31%) of trading services reported that their turnover had reduced in January 2026 compared with the previous month.

The movements are broadly in line with those observed around this time in previous years, with peaks in December followed by little falls in January. The markets with the highest proportion reporting that turnover reduced in January 2026 were: the lodging and food service activities industry (52%, which is a 21 percentage point increase from December 2025) the other services industry (45%) the arts, home entertainment and leisure industry (40%) Roughly 16% of trading organizations reported that their turnover increased in January 2026, which was a 3 percentage point increase compared with December 2025.

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

The exception to this was the percentage for services with 250 or more employees, which was 25%, and 5 percentage points lower than December 2025 (30%). Trading companies were asked how they anticipate their turnover to change in the coming month. This can then be utilized to predict how the organization's turnover will actually change as soon as that calendar month concludes.

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Trends in between expected turnover and real turnover have actually broadly moved in the very same direction, the movements for expectations tend to be bigger. Care should be taken when translating expectations concerns, as the workers responding on behalf of services might not have full oversight of all of their service's future expectations.

ANSR July UK PRs

More than one in five (21%) trading businesses expect their turnover to increase in March 2026. This is a 6 portion point increase from February 2026 but was broadly stable compared to expectations for March 2025 (22%). The percentage of trading companies expecting an increase in January 2026 was 13%, while the proportion that reported an actual increase in turnover in January 2026 was 16%, suggesting a small pessimism in businesses expectations.

The patterns have broadly followed each other given that the questions were introduced in April 2022. The results for March 2026 follow the pattern from previous years, with the portion of organizations expecting turnover to increase peaking after a reduction in January. Larger companies were more most likely to anticipate an increase in turnover in March, with the proportion varying from 20% for companies with 0 to 9 employees, to 42% for companies with 100 to 249 staff members.

For presentational purposes, some response options have been gotten rid of. Information are plotted in the middle of the period of each wave.

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

Expectations for turnover to decrease have regularly followed the same pattern, as actual reported turnover decreases throughout this time. Trading businesses were asked what challenges, if any, were impacting their turnover in early February 2026. Around 3 in 10 (30%) trading companies reported that economic unpredictability was having an effect on their turnover, which was broadly stable with early January 2026.

For trading companies with 10 or more employees, expense of labour was the most regularly reported obstacle, at 36%. Businesses with 10 to 49 employees were more most likely to report expense of labour as a challenge than companies with 250 or more employees (37%, compared with 20%). One in five (20%) trading services with 10 or more staff members indicated that they were not currently experiencing any turnover obstacles in early February 2026.