Written By: Judy Ponio Project Contributor at AngelouEconomics | Did you realize the Economic Impact of Small Business Optimism?
The National Federation of Independent Business has released its Small Business Optimism Index Report for the month of June 2018. Here is the economic impact summary of its findings:
- Optimism is strong and among the highest recorded for the past 45 years.
- Even so, the % of firms saying the next 3 months is a good time to expand dropped to 29%, likely due to international trade discussions.
- 36% of members who participated in the survey reported to have current job openings, increasing 3 points from May, however, 55% stated that they have no qualified applicants as opposed to last month’s 48%.
- Actual earnings have dropped 4 points but still highest readings in years, mostly due to sales volume and increased costs for labor, materials, finance, taxes and regulatory fees.
- Only 14% (net) of firms reported to have higher actual price changes, a decline of 5 points from last month but still one of the highest in the past few years.Credit conditions are still not looking favorable with loan availability dropping to -2% (net) for regular borrowers compared to three months ago.
- Actual inventory changes also plummeted to -2% (net) while firms who think that their current inventory is “too low” had gone up by 4 points to a net 0%. This is a positive for inventory building and indicates that lesser inventories were caused by strong sales rather than a loss of certainty. Firms claiming to have made a capital expenditure for the last 6 months has decreased by 3 points to 59%, with equipment accounting for 44% of purchases or leases during the last six months.
- Quality of labor is disclosed to be the single most important problem for 21% of firms, followed by taxes at 16%. This is a complete reversal of the scenario same time last year where 22% of firms were concerned over taxes while only 15% were worried about the quality of labor.
The survey was conducted among 665 NFIB members, majority of whom are engaged in retail, services, construction and manufacturing industries.
You may refer to this report for more details:
https://www.nfib.com/assets/SBET-June-2018.pdf
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