Customer demand rose at the highest pace since January 2016, leading to a surge in backlogs. As a result, employment numbers were stable after declining for six months in a row. Nevertheless, future expectations fell to their lowest since the series began in 2014.

Customer demand rose at the highest pace since January 2016 with new orders seeing the third month of consecutive growth including foreign orders especially to Europe and the Middle East.

The high level of client demand saw an uptick in the backlog of work during the month as firms struggled to meet new orders. Output prices were nevertheless higher on a month over month basis as firms run up higher input and purchases costs.

However, firms’ future expectations across the next 12 months fell to their lowest ever on record since the series was set in January 2014.