WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 11, 2026) – NFIB Research Center Executive Director Holly Wade joined Kristen Scholer on NYSE Live to discuss February’s Small Business Optimism Index and the issues currently impacting Main Street.

Wade analyzes NFIB’s February SBET survey, explaining why optimism ticked down half a point.

Watch Wade’s full interview here.

“So, in the latest report, in February, our February data in surveying small business owners, we did see the second month of deterioration of optimism, so it ticked down a half a point and we’re edging closer to that 52-year average of 98. So, this month or last month in February, we saw a deterioration in sales expectations. So, fewer small business owners are expecting sales to improve over the next quarter. And that was the dominant kind of heavy hitter in the components within the Index that we saw a decline, and so fewer small business owners are optimistic about sales expectations, at least in the short term. But, you know, everything outside of that seemed to be fairly stable, so that was a good sign.”

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“But, when looking at the employment situation, compensation pressures are still a really significant challenge for many small business owners. And last month we saw a number of comments in our comments section related to health insurance costs. So, health insurance costs are still an issue for many small business owners in trying to mitigate kind of compensation pressures and in attracting applicants for those still many open positions in certain industries. And, you know, that’s really one of the major pain points for a lot of small business owners in operating their firm.”