A STUDY of economic trends has found over the next six months there will be more jobs and more orders for firms in North Yorkshire, but signs of increasing optimism in the county were hard to find.

But the latest CBI/Yorkshire Forward survey shows only eight per cent of bosses in the county were optimistic about the business climate. That is well below the Yorkshire average of 14 per cent.

The survey, which is carried out every six months, aims to give a reliable snapshot of business opinion through a postal survey, carried out by Experian, and sent to 14,000 randomly selected businesses from all sectors of the economy in the Yorkshire Forward catchment area. Replies were received from 1,561 firms, a response rate of 11 per cent.

The survey also found that housing costs were seen as the strongest barrier to growth in North Yorkshire, with 27 per cent of firms highlighting the issue, significantly higher than firms across the region as a whole.

North Yorkshire companies were also the least internationally dependent sub-region of Yorkshire and Humber and are likely to invest more in buildings than the firms elsewhere in the region.

Jobs growth in York had been less rapid, with a balance of eight per cent of firms saying they took on more staff in the previous year compared with the regional average of 18 per cent.

Across the whole of Yorkshire and Humber, businesses reported fewer skills gaps in their workforces than anywhere else in Britain.

Overall, a balance of 18 per cent of the region's companies reported a growth in employment over the last 12 months, compared with a British average of 21 per cent.

Optimism about the general business climate for the next six months fell among firms from a balance of 33 per cent in March 2004 to 14 per cent in September. Britain's average is 14 per cent. Forty per cent of companies in North Yorkshire reported they were operating below capacity, which was in line with the regional average.

Terry Hodgkinson, chairman of Yorkshire Forward, said that despite the overall falls in optimism - not just in Yorkshire and Humber but nationally - there were many underlying positives.

"On the face of it, the report tells us that business confidence in the region is on the fall.

"But despite this, our businesses continue to see growth and are investing in what matters - people.

"Back in March, we also predicted that exports had finally turned the corner.

"Not only has that proven to be correct, but we see the figure rising to its highest level since we began this survey back in March 2000."

Updated: 11:28 Wednesday, December 08, 2004