{"id":1427290,"date":"2023-09-13T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1427290"},"modified":"2023-09-13T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T19:25:00","slug":"small-business-optimism-falls-as-inflation-persists-companies-struggle-to-find-new-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/small-business-optimism-falls-as-inflation-persists-companies-struggle-to-find-new-workers\/1427290\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Business Optimism Falls As Inflation Persists & Companies Struggle To Find New Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small Business Optimism Falls As Inflation Persists & Companies Struggle To Find New Workers<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Small business optimism fell in August, according to a new study, as American companies struggled to hire new workers amid persistent inflation.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which surveyed more than 600 small businesses, reported on Sept. 12 a decline in optimism in August, after three consecutive months of rising sentiment.<\/p>\n

The U.S. economy continued to grow last month, despite higher interest rates and a tumbling real estate market.<\/p>\n

Overall inflation slowed\u00a0over the past year, as the Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates to their highest level in 22 years.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0consumer prices slightly rose from July, many business owners are increasingly worried about future price conditions, despite solid consumer spending.<\/p>\n

Businesses Lose Confidence as Summer Spending Ends<\/h2>\n

The NFIB\u2019s Small Business Optimism Index for August dropped 0.6 percent to 91.3, the 20th\u00a0consecutive month below the 49-year average of 98.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWith small business owners\u2019 views about future sales growth and business conditions discouraging,<\/strong> owners want to hire and make money now from strong consumer spending,\u201d wrote NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cInflation and the worker shortage continue to be the biggest obstacles for Main Street.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Expectations of improved business conditions over the next six months fell seven points in August to a net negative 37 percent, <\/strong>an improvement from last June’s negative 61 percent, but still at recession levels.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The percentage of owners who expected sales to rise decreased two points from the previous month, to a net negative 14 percent, a three-year low.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three percent of small business owners reported inflation as their single most important problem in August, a rise of rise of 2 percent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Owing to tighter loan requirements, the percentage of firms planning capital outlays fell to a four-month low, but most small-business owners said that all of their credit needs were met.<\/p>\n

Businesses that raised their average selling prices in August rose by 2 percent to an annual seasonally adjusted 27 percent.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

About 40 percent of small business owners told surveyors that they had difficulty filling positions last month, a slight decline from July and a historic high.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although fewer firms said they would boost compensation in August, 26 percent said they planned to raise compensation in the next three months.<\/p>\n

The construction, service, and manufacturing sectors reported the greatest difficulty filling open positions, according to the survey.<\/p>\n

It comes after the Labor Department reported new job openings falling below 9 million in July for the first time since March 2021.<\/p>\n

US Households Expected to Face Challenges This Fall<\/h2>\n

Many U.S. households are facing challenges toward the end of the year, including the resumption of student loan payments, falling cash savings, a tighter credit market, and fears of another round of Fed rate hikes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

American consumer spending jumped 0.8 percent in July, led by the entertainment and travel sectors, which saw a summer boost, while retail\u00a0sales slightly increased by 0.7 percent.<\/p>\n

However, as the summer winds down, the hospitality industry is bracing for a sudden decline in spending as pandemic-era cash runs out, according to the Fed\u2019s latest \u201cBeige Book\u201d report this month.<\/p>\n

Morgan Stanley analysts warned in a recent note of a \u201changover effect on consumption\u201d in the fourth quarter, which could lead to slower economic growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is unknown how any of these factors will affect consumers,\u00a0but fewer economists expect a serious recession after repeated warnings of a downturn over the past year.<\/p>\n

Optimism over the strength of the U.S. economy has jumped in recent months<\/strong> and some economists believe that the Fed could actually pull off a soft landing and lower inflation to its 2 percent target, without causing a surge in unemployment.<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0Goldman Sachs reduced\u00a0its odds of a U.S. recession\u00a0over the next year to 15 percent, from 35 percent in March, when the spring bank crisis hit the markets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 09\/13\/2023 – 11:25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/personal-finance\/small-business-optimism-falls-inflation-persists-companies-struggle-find-new<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small Business Optimism Falls As Inflation Persists & Companies Struggle To Find New Workers Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times, Small business optimism…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1427290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-5ZiO","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}