Dip in small business sentiments in March
Small business owners in the US have expressed a dip in sentiments and outlook that could result in fewer job openings, according to a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
The negative sentiment surprisingly comes at a time when the small business owners are reporting the largest increase in new jobs per firm in a year, stated NFIB releasing the findings of a survey of 757 randomly sampled members .
The report points out that after six months of gains, the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell by almost 2 points in March to settle at 92.5.
After a promising start to the year, nine of ten index components dropped last month, most notably hiring plans and expected real sales growth taking a significant dive, says NFIB.
"What looked like the start of a recovery in profits fizzled out," said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg.
The most ominous finding in the survey is that hardly any of the NFIB members were optimistic of being able to create new jobs in the coming months. It is not as if some among the members had not tried to recruit new employees.
The survey reveals that 10 per cent of the owners added an average of 3.1 workers per firm over the past few months, and 13 per cent reduced employment an average of 2.1 workers per firm. The remaining 77 per cent of owners made no net change in employment.
Forty-four per cent of owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 32 per cent reported few or no qualified applicants for positions.
The findings are in consonance with the Friday's weak jobs number from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Besides the dismal jobs scenario, the survey cited poor sales, followed by taxes and government regulations among the reasons cited by the members for the erosion of business confidence.
To offset increasing input costs, an increasing number of businesses disclosed plans of raising prices (21 per cent plan price hikes in the coming months).
.Inflation now ranks No. 4 on the problem list, at 9 per cent.
"The mood of owners is subdued," Dunkelberg said. "They just can't seem to shake off the uncertainties out there, and confidence that the management team in Washington can deal with them effectively is flagging."
Source: Caribbean News.Net
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