Family Business Pulse Survey: June 2026
Employment intentions
Access to finance Over the past year, family businesses found internal sources of finance, such as retained earnings and owner capital, easier to access than external funding options, including debt finance (e.g. loans and credit lines) and equity investment from external investors.
are high wage expectations (40%), rising employment costs (37%), a lack of candidates with the right skills (25%), uncertainty about future demand (24%). Rising employment costs are a particular concern in certain sectors with almost half (48%) of businesses in retail, hospitality, and leisure citing this as the biggest barrier to recruiting staff.
Family businesses remain broadly optimistic about employment over the next 12 months, with 41% expecting to increase their workforce however this has been reduced due to increasing costs and uncertainty. Expectations for employment growth are strongest in the sales, media & marketing, IT and telecoms, and architecture, engineering & building sectors. Alongside geopolitical uncertainties, family businesses face several barriers to hiring. The most significant challenges
Over the next 12 months, to what extent do you expect to increase or decrease the number of people you directly employ in your business?
Over the past 12 months, how easy or hard did you find it for your family business to access finance?
7.6%
Increase significantly
Funding source
Easy (Net)
Hard (Net)
Neutral
N/A
33.3%
Increase slightly
Internal funding
41.77% 8.50% 31.42% 18.30%
48.6%
Stay about the same
Debt financing Equity financing
37.15% 11.46% 25.69% 25.69%
8.9%
Decrease slightly
31.98% 9.24% 26.25% 32.53%
0.7%
Decrease significantly
Government grants Other forms of finance
27.36% 19.59% 22.37% 30.68%
0.9%
Don’t know
24.40% 8.32% 28.28% 39.00%
40%
50%
60%
30%
0%
10%
20%
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