FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBANY, NY (March 6, 2026) – A new New York Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) report, produced by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Research Center and released today, highlights responses from New York small business owners on a variety of issues compared to national averages from the NFIB’s monthly SBET surveys throughout the year.

“The Small Business Economic Trends survey has provided essential information about the small business economy for decades,” said Holly Wade, Executive Director of NFIB’s Research Center. “While this data is a useful tool for evaluating the economy on a national scale, no state can be defined by national numbers alone. This state-specific report allows us to better understand business conditions and the unique challenges and strengths owners’ face in New York.”

The Small Business Optimism Index for New York small businesses in summer (April-Sept.) 2025 was 95.6, 2.3 points below the national average. While New York’s Optimism Index has periodically lagged below the national average throughout the history of the survey, New York’s optimism levels mostly paralleled the national Index in recent years. This year’s decline was largely caused by negative sales expectations, employment plans, and economic expectations among New York small businesses.

“This data highlights the complex nature of New York’s diverse Main Street economy and underscores the unique challenges our members face,” said Ashley Ranslow, NFIB’s State Director for New York. “Small businesses in New York are resilient and adaptable, but rising costs and an unforgiving regulatory environment continue to stifle their optimism. It is imperative that the state addresses these obstacles and provides common-sense solutions that make the Empire State a better place to own and operate a business.”

Business Health

While the Optimism Index for New York small businesses fell below the national average, Main Street owners in New York reported substantially more positively than those in rest of the country when asked to evaluate the overall health of their business.

In summer 2025, 18% of New York small business owners rated the health of their business as excellent (seven points above the national average of 11%), 57% rated it as good (three points above the national average), 22% rated it fair (seven points below the national average), and 3% rated it poor (down two points from the national average).

Single Most Important Problem

New York small business owners identified labor quality as the single most important problem impacting their small business in summer 2025. This aligns with reports from small business owners throughout the country.

However, the New York-specific data diverges from national trends on several significant issues. While the cost of labor is the fifth most important issue nationally, it is the second most reported top issue for New York businesses.

A notable change for New York small businesses is the number of firms reporting inflation as their top concern. In summer 2025, only 8% reported inflation as their number one operating problem, compared to 18% the previous year. While inflation is far less challenging for small businesses in New York than it was in 2024, this improvement was not universal for other states, as the national average of owners reporting inflation as their main issue remained elevated at 13%.

Uncertainty Index

Unfortunately, small businesses in New York and the U.S. as a whole experienced elevated levels of uncertainty throughout 2025, with many owners reporting “don’t know” or “uncertain” when asked a variety of questions about their plans for their business over the course of the year. Though New York’s Uncertainty Index was lower than the U.S. overall, it remains at a historically high level that certainly is affecting the ability of small businesses to plan and operate.

The data for this report is sourced from NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) Survey. The NFIB Research Center has collected SBET data, polled from a random sample of NFIB members, with quarterly surveys since the fourth quarter of 1973 and monthly surveys since 1986. To create this new state-specific report, we pooled data from multiple surveys into a weighted average for a given season (Apr-Sep for summer and Oct-Mar for winter). This report analyzes data from New York respondents from summer 2025.

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For over 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.