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Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Continue to Weaken
The MBA Loan Applications Index fell 1.2% (-54.5% y/y) in the week ended May 20...
German Climate Reading Continues to Skid Toward the Abyss
Germany's GfK consumer climate reading improved ever so slightly in June...
U.S. New Home Sales Plunge in April as Prices Jump
The new home sales market is unraveling...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $4.59 per gallon in the week ended May 23...
S&P Flash PMIs Are Mixed in May As Manufacturing Erodes Slowly
Among the early reporting countries in Europe and Japan, the S&P PMI readings for May tilt toward weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
State Coincident Indexes in April 2022
State Labor Markets in April 2022
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
by Tom Moeller October 11, 2011
The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its September index of small business optimism ticked up to 88.9 from an unrevised 88.1 in August. Nevertheless, it remained near the lowest level since last July. Improvement in firms' expectations for the economy and sales was offset by deterioration in jobs and the availability of credit. The percentage of firms raising prices made up most of last month's deterioration but the percentage of firms planning to raise prices fell to 14%, its lowest since November.
The most important problems faced by small business were poor sales (28%), government requirements (18%), taxes (16%), inflation (8%), insurance cost & availability (7%), competition from large businesses (7%), quality of labor (6%), financial & interest rates (3%) and the cost of labor (3%).
Roughly 24 million small businesses exist in the U.S. and they create 80% of all new jobs. The NFIB figures can be found in Haver's SURVEYS database.
| National Federation of Independent Business | Sep | Aug | Jul | Sep 10 |
2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business Optimism Index (SA,1986=100) | 88.9 | 88.1 | 89.9 | 89.0 | 89.9 | 86.7 | 89.8 |
| Firms Expecting Higher Real Sales In Six Months (Net %) | -6 | -12 | -2 | -3 | 1 | -11 | -7 |
| Firms Expecting Economy To Improve (Net %) | -22 | -26 | -15 | -3 | -1 | -0 | -10 |
| Firms With One or More Job Openings (Net %) | 14 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 18 |
| Firms Reporting That Credit Was Harder To Get (Net %) | 10 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 9 |
| Firms Raising Avg. Selling Prices (Net %) | 6 | 1 | 7 | -11 | -12 | -20 | 17 |
