Small Business Owner Confidence Still Low, Says NFIB

Source - http://cortineo.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/small-business-owner-confidence-still-low-says-nfib/

Data released last week by the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, reveals that small business owner confidence did in fact increase in December, but still remains at one of the lowest readings in history.

In December, the NFIB reported that the small business optimism index rose 0.5 point to 88.0. December’s gain, however, followed a near 6.0 plunge in November – one of the steepest declines ever. The report stated that the recent increase is consistent with recession behavior, and is not pointing to an expansion.

“Were it not for population growth supporting consumption and net new small business creation, we would have no growth at all,” the NFIB report stated. The 88.0 reading in December was the lowest since March 2010.

The group’s chief economist, Bill Dunkelberg, said that small business owners were left with “no new information about the economy’s future” at the end of 2012 because “Congress played chicken right up to the end of the year…the ‘eleventh hour deal’ has brought marginal certainty about tax rates.”

Dunkelberg went on to say that “let’s not forget what is looming on the horizon: a debate over the debt limit and a regulatory avalanche of historic proportions about to spill out into the country.”

Also noted in the report: small business owners reported a miniscule increase in job creation, with an average of 0.03 new workers per company. 41% of owners “tried to hire or hired” within the last several months, but 33% reported “few or no qualified applications” for open positions. Overall, the report cited December as “more of the same, uncertainty right up to the last minutes of 2012 and then over the cliff.”

Worth noting, though, is that the NFIB does expect housing to recover, which is no doubt good for small business. Their report also stated that “car sales will be solid in 2013 as well.”

To download the entire report, visit NFIB.com.