A first rise in employment for 10 months was witnessed in the region in December, as growth accelerated again after November's lockdown slowdown.
Yorkshire and the Humber bucked the 海角视频 trend to remain in growth then, and now it is outperforming every other region with the “solid expansion”.
How the third lockdown will impact remains to be seen in the monthly NatWest Yorkshire & Humber Business Activity Index.
Richard Topliss, chairman of NatWest North Regional Board, said: “The latest PMI data further highlights the robust recovery that the Yorkshire and Humber private sector has experienced since the initial coronavirus lockdown, with both output and new orders rising solidly in December.
“Demand conditions have now improved to such an extent that businesses are regaining confidence around hiring, and that was reflected by a renewed, albeit slight, increase in employment. On a slightly less positive note, confidence towards the 12-month business outlook slipped to a six-month low, but optimism remains historically elevated. It will be interesting to see how the economy responds with the new national lockdown."
The index registered 53.8 in December, up from 51.7 in November - when the region was one of five from the 12 to stay in positive territory.
Yorkshire and Humber, together with East of England were the only regions to arrest the job number declines witnessed since the pandemic began.
Expansions were only slight in both cases. In Yorkshire and Humber, the increase was driven by manufacturing firms, while service providers continued to cut jobs.
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Although businesses remained confident towards the one-year outlook for activity, the degree of positivity softened in December. In fact, sentiment fell to the weakest since June and was only slightly stronger than the national average, with both manufacturers and services firms less optimistic than in November.
Private sector firms recorded a slight increase in volumes of outstanding business during the final month of 2020. The result followed the first decline for three months during November. At the sub-sector level, the expansion was driven solely by manufacturing firms while service providers posted a marginal contraction.
Cost burdens faced by Yorkshire & Humber businesses continued to rise markedly in December, with the rate of input price inflation accelerating sharply to the quickest since August 2018. Anecdotal evidence indicated that the increase in costs was predominantly driven by higher prices for metals and hygiene products amid shortages.
Average output prices continued to rise at the end of 2020 as a result.