Half of small and medium sized firms expect to shut, reduce their workforce or restructure by the end of the summer, according to a new survey.
The summer business sentiment survey from the Small Firms' Association found that 42 per cent of companies were less confident about their business now than they were three months ago.
Three-quarters of firms rated the overall business environment as “poor” or “very poor”.
Despite this SFA director Patricia Callan said there was evidence the pace of decline was slowing although she said the Government needed to intervene in areas of market failure.
“The overall survey results show that whilst small businesses remain under serious pressure, the pace of deterioration seems to be slowing,” Ms Callan said.
Distribution firms showed the highest negative rating at 86 per cent, followed by services by 78 per cent and manufacturing at 72 per cent.
The SFA surveyed 584 firms for the report employing 11,932 people during May.
