White House on Low Small Business Optimism: They’re ‘Going to Have to Compete Hard’ for Workers, We’re Distributing COVID Relief Money

During an interview on Bloomberg on Tuesday, White House National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti reacted to data from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) showing that small business optimism is below average for the 17th straight month and concerns that small businesses won’t be able to attract workers the same way big companies can by stating that more people are creating small businesses, there are “significant investments in the American Rescue Plan that are now being distributed” and increased lending from the Small Business Administration, and “employers, whether they’re big or employers or smaller employers, are going to have to compete hard to attract and retain workers.”

Co-host Alix Steel asked, [relevant exchange begins around 43:20] “[A] large company that [is] able to pass through some spending and able to hire and hang on to workers and pay more is great, but the NFIB data came out today and it was pretty grim. Small businesses are not feeling great. What do we do there? How does the administration help them?”

Ramamurti answered, “Well, we have a very robust small business agenda. It starts with the fact that, number one, people have been creating more new small businesses over the last two years than we’ve ever seen since we started collecting that data. 10.5 million new applications for new small businesses in 2021 and 2022, which blows away any other previous two-year period. And second of all, the president has been clear that we need to provide access to capital to small businesses so that they can go from where they are today to grow. There are significant investments in the American Rescue Plan that are now being distributed via the states. The Small Business Administration is expanding some of its loan programs to make that sure all of these small businesses have more access to capital. But I think what you’re seeing at the end of the day is that, for the first time in a long time, we have a highly competitive job market, and that means employers, whether they’re big or employers or smaller employers, are going to have to compete hard to attract and retain workers. We think, ultimately, that that’s a good thing.”

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