Last week's poll: do you expect a return to business as usual?

MORE FROM THE ENGINEER ON INDUSTRY'S RESPONSE TO COVID-19

For 43 per cent of respondents to last week’s poll, it will be at least a year (12-18 months) before their business returns to pre-Covid levels. A more optimistic picture emerges for 36 per cent of respondents who believe 3-6 months is a realistic time frame.

Worryingly, 13 per cent don’t expect a return to business as usual. Of the remaining eight per cent, five per cent see a swift return to normality (within the next month) and three per cent have been unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the comments that followed, Ekij said: “As a manufacturer of “critical importance” we’re still up and running. However with some changes. Most of the engineers are working from home. The shop floor are trying to maintain 2m social distancing. Orders are all over the place and the supply chain is “flaky” to say the least.”

“While I voted 12-18 months – as I think some kind of a new normality will have emerged by then – the repercussions will extend for many years beyond that,” added The Original Dave.

“The lock-down is very much time-limited, and won’t last longer than another month or two, so in that regards, we’ll be back to “normal” quite soon,” said Mohammed Abdullah. “It’s hard to say how the economy (UK and elsewhere) will be affected in the medium term, but I don’t for one second believe the wound is as deep as 2008.”

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