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Business Confidence Up 2 Points
Small Business Optimism Index gained 2 points
in April to 94.5. This is the highest reading since
since December 2007, but no different than the
February 2011 level, indicating a year with no
real gains.
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Keep on Top of Changing Regulations
What you need to know about:

Individual Mandate Penalties

Top Impediments to Small Business Growth
According to the NFIB's Research Foundation
Study, Growth – External Factors report,
the two primary external impediments to small
business growth are:
•Economic and political uncertainty
•Weak sales

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Small Business, Credit Access,
and a Lingering Recession
A new study from the NFIB Research Foundation examining small-business access to credit reveals that even while the (slow) economic recovery sent demand for credit on an upward trajectory in 2011, the real estate overhang continues to depress small-business growth and curb capacity to borrow.

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Research Foundation

Find the latest research, polls and information on critical small business trends, including NFIB's well-known monthly Small Business Economic Trends report.

Small Business Economic Trends

SBET NFIB Small Business Economic Trends, May 2012
The Small Business Optimism Index gained 2 points to 94.5 in April, a nice gain on an absolute basis. This month's Index is the highest reading since December 2007, the peak of the last expansion. That's the good news. The bad news is that April's gain is the same as it was in February 2011 proving a year with no real gains. No surprise, since nothing much happened during that time that would make owners more optimistic about the future.

May 2012 Survey

What's Keeping Unemployment so High?

Small Business Problems & Priorities

Small Business Problems & Priorities study Problems & Priorities
The cost of health insurance remains the top problem for small business in America—-as it has been for two decades. Read the survey results from the seventh edition of NFIB's Small Business Problems and Priorities survey, which is based on the responses of 3,530 small business owners.

See Problems & Priorities