Despite the changing shape of the PR industry a fundamental part of anyone’s daily role is to review the media and be aware of what is going on locally, nationally and globally. Unfortunately this often means that you have to be particularly susceptible to bad news, as well as good.
Recently however I’ve been pleased to see that there has been some really positive news coming from the Yorkshire region. The first piece appeared a couple of weeks ago on the BDaily website. The story focused on a report by Barclays which looked into the entrepreneurial landscape in the UK and Ireland and referenced a notable increase in entrepreneurial activity across Yorkshire.
Although this activity was based on the purchase of shares, it recognised that Yorkshire is the fifth-biggest region for entrepreneurial activity in the country. Even more interestingly, this success appears to have been bolstered by industrial companies.
Hopefully as industrial businesses within the Yorkshire region start to perform ahead of expectations this will then have an impact on other sectors, leading to more green shoots and positive news throughout the county.
The second story that caught my eye featured on the Business Desk last week and reported that 68% of companies in Yorkshire had confirmed that new positions within their organisations were in the pipeline. As a company that is also recruiting, it was great to see that there are real opportunities for jobs and growth within the region.
Better still the piece goes on to report that the Yorkshire and Humber is the region showing most improvement in relation to employment opportunities, up from 54% in 2012, and in addition 84% of those questioned said that they are not planning any job losses this year.
I hope that with more good news to be shared by the businesses in Yorkshire we can all benefit. It would appear that determination, a can do attitude and rolling our sleeves up is certainly helping the companies based within the county to look forward rather than back, and it would appear that many have opportunity within their sights.
So, on that note, may I also take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy St George’s Day – and shhhh, I don’t want to talk too soon, but the sun is finally shining, that can only be a good thing!