Business confidence for Q3 2025 less negative

The increase in business confidence is mainly because businesses are less negative regard-ing the economic environment; when it comes to the economic outlook, they are almost as negative as they were in Q2 2025. Business confidence is now very close to the average (-3.7) for the series since 2012.

Largest increase in transportation & storage sector

Business confidence rose in eight industrial sectors and fell in four. It rose the most in the transportation & storage sector, from -12.0 to -0.9. It also increased in business ser-vices, turning from negative to positive. Along with information and communications, these are the only sectors where business confidence is in positive territory. Confidence fell by the most in agriculture, forestry & fishing, and that sector also recorded the most negative figure. Confidence also fell in accommodation & food services, real estate activities and the retail sector, but remained at around the same level as in Q2.

More businesses experiencing staff shortages

Businesses still cite labour shortages the most often as the main obstacle to their business operations. The share of companies mentioning labour shortages fell in both of the two most recent quarters, but has now risen to 36 percent at the start of Q3 2025. This is slightly higher than the share of companies who say they are experiencing no obstacles.

One in five businesses perceive weak demand as their main obstacle; for over 10 percent, financial constraints are the main concern. The picture was broadly similar in the previous quarter. Fewer businesses see a shortage of production resources as the main obstacle.

Over half of sectors expect to invest more

Almost as many businesses expect to invest more this year as expect to invest less. On balance, then, investment expectations are around the same as a year ago. Seven out of the twelve industrial sectors expect to invest more, on balance.

Businesses in the real estate activities sector are the most positive regarding investment this year. On balance, 17 percent of them expect to invest more. Last year, the share was almost 25 percent. Compared to 2024, investment expectations improved by the most in the transportation and storage sector, with a net increase from 3 to 12 percent.

Businesses in the construction, information & communication, retail and accommodation & food services sectors have negative expectations regarding investment. In the accommo-dation & food services sector, businesses were the most negative with a score of -12 per-cent, on balance. This number also fell by the most compared to last year. In the manufac-turing sector, businesses with a positive outlook were around the same in number as those with a negative outlook.