Small businesses say inflation has become their biggest problem, and they don’t expect business conditions to improve over the next six months
Highlights
- The Small Business Optimism Index is down by 2.4 points in March, the third monthly drop in a row.
- The index is the lowest in the survey’s 48-year history.
- One-inflation is now the biggest problem facing small business owners, up 5 points from February.
- The Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation rate, rose to 8.5 percent in March.
- Nearly half of owners say they had job openings they could not fill in March; 40 percent said supply chain disruptions have had a significant impact on their businesses’ finances.
- It’s the first time small-business owners have faced such a sustained period of runaway price increases, the group’s executive director says.