According to Sign On San Diego, a survey states that pessimism has risen among small businesses during the past month.
The fallback in confidence is occurring even as the economy seems to have bottomed out, with retail sales picking up nationwide and an increasing number of small businesses preparing to add workers.
“News about the economy is for the most part improving and therefore is an unlikely source of small-business uncertainty and declining optimism,” said William Dunkelberg, the federation’s chief economist. Instead, he said, small businesses are more skeptical of how politicians are handling the economy.
Yesterday’s survey showed that confidence among small businesses dipped 1.3 percent in February, back to December’s level.
But the poll also found that over the next six months, 13 percent of small businesses plan to create new jobs, up three points from January, and 8 percent plan to lay off workers, down two points from the previous month.
“Small businesses are seeing big banks getting bailed out and they’re not getting the same help and don’t have access to capital,” DeNoble said. “And small businesses that rely on consumers buying their products with discretionary dollars are in a fix because consumer spending is tight. There’s a lot of competition out there and the cost of keeping the doors open is very high. That doesn’t make for a happy environment.”
Photo by TheLandOfKarlalot