Business owners far less satisfied with Gov’t

The recent Yrittäjägallup survey shows that business owners’ satisfaction with the Government has declined significantly over the summer. However, there were slightly more satisfied respondents than dissatisfied ones.

Business owners’ satisfaction in the Government’s work has declined by nine percentage points since June, the Yrittäjägallup survey shows. In August, 45% of respondents were satisfied. At the start of the year, almost 60% were satisfied.

“The clearest factor of dissatisfaction is the hasty VAT increase, which did not give business owners sufficient time to adjust. There, the Government was tone-deaf. Some felt that the half a per cent (25.5%) was just taking the mickey,” says Mikael Pentikäinen, CEO of Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association.

“Many business owners are also dissatisfied with how the Government is supporting growth and sanitizing the public finances. On both counts, business owners expect more.”

Business owners in the social service and healthcare fields are dissatisfied by the Soteri register debacle and the negative attitude of the well-being service counties towards private operators.

“Many are also aggrieved that measures to boost competition, such as on in-house units, are not moving forward. In addition, business owners had expected more extensive local bargaining opportunities, particularly for companies that want to bargain with all employees as a whole,” Pentikäinen says.

Even though business owners’ satisfaction with the Government has declined, satisfaction with the opposition has not risen, remaining at 14%.

Dissatisfaction with the Government is at a similar level in different groups of business owners. Those most satisfied with the Government are companies employing more than ten people, industry companies, and business owners aged over 60. The lowest satisfaction is among single person business owners, the young, and women. Among male business owners, satisfaction is 54%, but only 31% among women.

“Many business owners now have a wait-and-see approach with regards to the Government. Let’s see whether the Government can turn the debt trend around and get the economy growing. It’s clear that will need help from the global markets and the ECB in the form of interest-rate cuts,” Pentikäinen says.

“Investments require trust, and that trust is now splintering. This is not a good sign.

The Yrittäjägallup survey was answered by 1,112 representatives of micro-enterprises and SMEs between 14 and 26 August.  Of the respondents, 45% were single-person business owners.

NCP most popular by far

The National Coalition Party continues to be the most popular party among business owners by a large margin. If a general election were held now, 40% of business owners would vote NCP. However, business owners’ support for the NCP has declined slightly. In June, it was 43%.

The Finns Party is the second most popular party among business owners, at 12%, and the Centre Party third at 8%. The Finns Party’s support has dropped slightly, while Centre’s has risen somewhat. The changes are within the margin of error.

The larger a business owner’s company, the more likely they are to support the NCP. Centre is the second most popular party among business owners in Northern Finland, while the Greens hold the same rank in the Helsinki region.

Among female business owners, Centre and the Greens are more popular parties than the Finns Party. Among women, too, the NCP is the clear number one.

Read the results in more detail here.

How the survey was conducted

A total of 1,122 representatives of SMEs responded to the survey, conducted by Veriana on behalf of Suomen Yrittäjät between 14 and 26 August. 
The confidence interval for the survey results is +/- 2.9 percentage points.