NFIB: Few owners expect business conditions to improve, few expect real sales to rise...

NFIB Small Business Optimism Index 11/9/10

Well, not much has changed. The Index remains at recession levels where it has been for two years. Few owners expect business conditions to improve, few expect real sales to rise, more plan to cut inventories than to order more, and capital spending plans and actual expenditures remain at recession levels.

However, there are a few specks of good news. Firms appear to have stopped reducing employment, but few plan to create new jobs. Inventory levels are viewed as balanced, but more owners still continue to reduce stocks than build them and more plan cuts than additions.

Interest rates are low, yes, but there is little motivation to borrow even cheap money since there are few uses that promise a return on their investment. Most owners (75 percent) feel it is not a good time to expand their firms (20 percent are uncertain), 1 in 5 of them blame the uncertain political environment as the primary factor explaining their views. Complete Report