The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) recently highlighted insights into the current state of small business employment and their future outlook in an interview on Bloomberg's "The Close." NFIB Research Center's Executive Director Holly Wade joined Alix Steel and Romaine Bostick to interpret findings from the latest Small Business Optimism Index, focusing on how small businesses are navigating present economic conditions.
Wade discussed the NFIB's March Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) survey, explaining how small business owners are responding to the continuous uncertainty affecting operational decisions and optimism regarding future business prospects. In her interview, Wade underscored the challenge faced by small business owners: "Small business owners still remain in this turbulent environment of uncertainty, not quite knowing how [new policies] might impact them, to what extent it might impact them...So, small business owners are in a bit of a wait-and-see mode to see what happens and how they should proceed forward and adjust business operations accordingly."
Despite the challenging environment, Wade expressed how experienced owners assess their operations to remain viable: "Small business owners...are quite familiar with looking at their business operations and what they need to do to survive and keep those doors open...So, in the next few months we will see the extent to which the policies shifts will impact them and see how they’re moving forward and adjusting operations – whether that’s related to employment, prices, or scaling back or scaling up."
The survey revealed that, while hiring plans have decreased, the number of unfilled job openings persists at elevated levels, particularly in sectors like construction, manufacturing, and transportation. Wade noted, "When we look at our responses from March, the employment situation is still holding strong. So, while they’ve scaled back on plans to hire...the unfilled job openings levels are still very, very high, especially in those industries related to construction, manufacturing, and transportation."
On the subject of sales, Wade detailed a decline in expectations: "On the sales front, we saw a huge spike right after the election on [the percent of owners] anticipating increased sales. They were very enthusiastic about what that might mean for consumer spending. That has edged back quite a bit from the high level that we saw in December, and [the percent of owners expecting higher sales] has come down quite significantly. That was one of the main reasons for the drop in optimism this last month."
For more on Wade's insights, you can watch the interview [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mac_vE-p5As&t=2120s).
