I received the results of an NFIB survey today that I thought would be worth sharing. You can read the entire report here, but the gist of it is contained in this quote:
“After two months of incremental but solid gains, the Index gave up in June. This appears par for the course, given that there is no reason for small employers to be more optimistic and lots of things to worry about,” said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Washington remains bogged down in scandals and confidence in government’s ability to deal with our fundamental problems remains low. Economic growth was revised down for the first quarter of the year and the outlook for the second quarter is not looking good. Nothing cheers up a small-business owner more than a customer, and they remain scarce and cautious while consumer spending remains weak and more owners are reporting negative sales trends than positive ones.
It certainly doesn’t help that the endless stream of delays and capitulations of certain provisions of the healthcare law adds to the uncertainty felt by owners. Until growth returns to the small-business half of the economy, it will be hard to generate meaningful economic growth and job creation.”
Unfortunately, that’s not the brightest news for our horizon. Currently we’re busy, but the size of projects is down as well as the size of our staff. We’re seeing some things being done because they absolutely can’t wait longer rather than because there’s optimism and a need for expansion.