Americans' confidence in small businesses remains high.
Contrary to most other U.S. institutions that have seen increasingly negative ratings, small business continues to instill confidence and trust in the public.
Such confidence in small business has been steady over the years but has risen to 67 percent in 2015, up 4 percentage points from its historical average, according to a recent Gallup poll. The military, polling at 72 percent this year, is the only other major institution that is doing better than its historical average.
Big business, meanwhile, has never polled higher than 34 percent and has a confidence level of 21 percent this year. It has finished last or tied for last in nine surveys, according to Gallup.
Gallup offers some explanations for the confidence difference between small and big businesses, including: “Small businesses, as defined by government statistics, are the most likely source of employment for U.S. workers. Because they are more likely to be run or owned by citizens in local communities, they are often seen as more in tune with the needs of local communities than are larger corporations that must pay attention to the decisions of a potentially far-away management structure.”
Although confidence levels in banks have largely leveled out around the low-to-mid 20s since 2009, they were once polling as high as 53 percent, back in 2004.
And confidence levels for the worst-faring institution, Congress, now sit at a mere 8 percent—a 16 percentage point difference in its historical average. Congress has ranked last every year since 2010.
