With the rising costs of hiring staff, small business owners are sacrificing more of their own holiday time to keep their business running and spending less time with their families and kids.
A total of 2.8 million small business owners will be working in some capacity over the Christmas period. 34% of these say they are planning to work as they can't afford to take the time off. A further 17% of owners say they are unable to take time off as they do not have enough staff to cover this period.
The survey found that the cost of employing staff is a growing issue, with 2.3 million small business owners not hiring additional staff due to rising costs of employment.
This makes grim reading for parents whose kids are just setting out in the the UK workplace and for mothers looking to return to work.
Apprenticeships aren't considered an option either. Only 14% of small businesses are planning to take on an apprentice in 2017, despite the incentives available for businesses hiring one.
Additionally the National Minimum Wage and the Living Wage was cited as a growing reason for not being able to hire employees.
The average amount of holiday days taken was 17, which is still over two weeks below the entitlement for an average full-time UK worker.
With over 60% of small business owners foregoing their Christmas break and with 43% citing high taxes as a reason contributing towards having to work such long hours, it's clear the Government has much do to in order to improve the working climate and to reduce the UK unemployment figure.
More information on the report can be found at www.mybizdaq.com.
