NFIB: "Small Business Takes Significant Hit In June"

The latest issue of the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends is out today. The update for June came in at 94.1, a 4.2 point decline from the previous month. The index is now at the 21st percentile in this series.

The Investing.com forecast was for 98.6.

Here is the opening summary of the news release.

The Small Business Optimism Index fell 4.2 points to 94.1, likely in response to five months of lousy growth. The 42 year Index average is 98.0, while the pre-recession average is 99.5 (1974-2007). This leaves the current reading 4 points below the overall average, a deficiency of 40 net positive percentage point responses to the Index’s 10 component questions. While this is not a recession signal, it is a clear sign that economic growth on Main Street is not set for a strong second half. Nine of the 10 Index components fell and 1 was unchanged from last month. Declines in spending plans accounted for 30 percent of the Index decline, and weaker expectations for real sales and business conditions another 20 percent. The deterioration in earnings trends accounted for about a quarter of the decline.

The first chart below highlights the 1986 baseline level of 100 and includes some labels to help us visualize that dramatic change in small-business sentiment that accompanied the Great Financial Crisis. Compare, for example the relative resilience of the index during the 2000-2003 collapse of the Tech Bubble with the far weaker readings following the Great Recession that ended in June 2009.

The average monthly change in this indicator is 1.3 points. To smooth out the noise of volatility, here is a 3-month moving average of the Optimism Index along with the monthly values, shown as dots.

Here are some excerpts from the report.

Labor Markets

It looks like small businesses “hired in May and then went away”. So, small businesses took a breather from job creation in June after a string of five solid months of job creation. On balance, owners added a net -0.01 workers per firm in recent months, essentially zero. Ten percent reported increasing employment an average of 3.2 workers per firm while 12 percent reported reducing employment an average of 3.3 workers per firm.

Credit Markets

Has the Fed's zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing had a positive impact on Small Businesses?

Five percent of owners reported that all their borrowing needs were not satisfied, historically low. Thirty-two percent reported all credit needs met, and 49 percent explicitly said they did not want a loan. For most of the recession, record numbers of firms have been on the “credit sidelines”, seeing no good reason to borrow. But May and June readings suggest that the credit appetite of owners might be increasing. Thirty-one percent of all owners reported borrowing on a regular basis, up 2 points.

NFIB Commentary

This month's "Commentary" section includes the following observations:

The President continues to push regulations to pay people more in higher wages, more overtime, health insurance, etc. However, he does not pursue policies that help increase productivity. Higher pay with the same output means inflation or unemployment or both, neither being good for workers or businesses.

Benefits are rising, increasing the cost of employment but the President doesn’t mention this. We are becoming very French, trying to create new jobs by reducing the hours worked by current workers, and replacing those hours with new workers. The French 35 hour work week (for 40 hour pay) didn’t work and the President’s version won’t work here. Instead, his plan will continue to eliminate opportunities for the young and unskilled to enter the labor force and become productive citizens. Hey, $25 an hour would put everyone above the median income….hmmm, liberal math works, but only on paper.

Business Optimism and Consumer Confidence

The next chart is an overlay of the Business Optimism Index and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index. The consumer measure is the more volatile of the two, so it is plotted on a separate axis to give a better comparison of the volatility from the common baseline of 100.

These two measures of mood have been highly correlated since the early days of the Great Recession.