Optimism among small business owners is surging since the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America, a new survey reveals.
The November Index of Small Business Optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business shows small businesses have gained confidence with the expectation of better conditions under the new Trump administration.
“What a difference a day makes,” said Juanita Duggan, President and CEO of NFIB. “Before Election Day small business owners’ optimism was flat, and after Election Day it soared.”
NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said, “The November index was basically unchanged from October’s reading up to the point of the election and then rose dramatically after the results of the election were known.”
For the full month of November the index surged 3.5 points to 98.4. NFIB marked this as only the third time since 2007 that the index rose above the 42-year average.
Small business owners’ plans to hire jumped 14 percentage points from pre-election to post-election, according to the index. Sales expectations also jumped from net four percent to net 20.
The major boost came in the expectation of better business conditions, which increased a massive 44 percent. Pre-election the expectation was negative six, but post-election expectation was up to 38 percent.
“Even without separating the data, the November results paint a starkly different picture than what we’ve seen in the last 94 months,” remarked Dunkelberg. He went on to predict that if the high optimism continues, business hiring and expanding will increase.
Neil Dutta of Renaissance Macro Research LLC told Bloomberg that “small businesses like unified Republican government” and pointed to a drop in the index the month that President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.
The NFIB pinned the hope of continued optimism on the Trump administration and Congress making good on plans to reform the tax code, repeal regulations, and reform the “broken insurance system.”
Duggan stated, “Federal taxes, regulations, and Obamacare are the three biggest impediments to running a small business in America. Small business owners have high expectations that those problems will be addressed.”
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