Business owners, economists, and American families are worried that the U.S. economy is heading towards a recession.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Survey’s Small Business Optimism Index dropped in March, leaving it below the 48-year average for a third consecutive month.
Key Findings:
- Inflation: The highest percentage of business owners in history report having to increase prices on American consumers at 72 percent.
- Plummeting Optimism: Optimism plummeted to record lows, with the percentage of business owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months decreasing to just less than half of all surveyed – the lowest level ever recorded.
- Worker Shortage: Despite business owners now reporting inflation as a bigger problem than job openings, 47 percent of owners still have job openings that they can’t fill.
Key Background:
- The March Consumer Price Index showed prices surging 8.5 percent from a year earlier – the highest increase in 40 years, which hits low-income Americans hardest.
- With more than 60 percent of Main Street businesses reporting they’re having to raise prices to keep up with inflation, economists are warning the U.S. is at risk of a wage-price spiral.
- Despite 40-year high inflation, President Biden’s latest budget proposal includes tax hikes that hit working families and Main Street job creators hardest.
- Small businesses pass rising costs onto consumers, and a recent poll found that 62 percent of American families’ incomes can’t keep up. In fact, families’ incomes have fallen for seven straight months under President Biden.
