Small Businesses See Sunny Skies | 2018 Small Business Trends

Small business owners’ optimism touched a 35-year high last month, with businesses setting records in terms of job creation and hiring, while also being able to increase prices.

​In July, the NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index marked its second highest level in the survey’s 45-year history, at 107.9 – just shy of the July 1983 record-high of 108.
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• 23 percent of businesses are planning to create new jobs, while 37 percent of business owners said they had job openings that they could not fill in July.
• 35 percent of owners expect better business conditions, while they said the availability of qualified workers was their No. 1 problem.
• 59 percent of firms were hiring or trying to hire, while 52 percent (88 percent of those hiring or trying to hire) reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
• Twenty-three percent of owners said their biggest business problem was finding qualified workers.

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