Business survey begins with the large existential question
The latest ONS business survey asks companies whether they are fully trading, partly trading or no longer trading. This gives every firm the exciting opportunity to discover its status in a dropdown menu.
Wave 132 also asks what happened to turnover in April. Respondents may report an increase, a fall or no change. Meanwhile, owners can add the unofficial answer: ask me after the tax bill arrives.
The questionnaire covers prices and conditions across the economy. Therefore, it converts thousands of complicated commercial lives into boxes that a spreadsheet can regard without becoming emotional.
“We begin with easy questions such as are you a business,” said Daphne Tickbox, Deputy Comptroller of Approximate Confidence. “Later, we ask whether things improved, using a font that remains strictly neutral.”
At the National Repository of Fortnightly Feelings, analysts prepared to compare this wave with the previous wave. The waves never reach a beach. Instead, they become a chart with a grey confidence interval.
However, the survey serves a real purpose. Frequent responses help statisticians track fast changes that slower official data might miss. The economy rarely waits for an annual report before becoming awkward.
Finally, each business presses submit and returns to trading. It will receive another questionnaire soon, because economic insight is what happens when a nation repeatedly asks whether everybody is all right.
Read the real story: the ONS publication of the business survey questions.
