As of July 2018, NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index reached 107.9, its second-highest level in the survey’s 45-year history. A record number of employers have job openings and are reporting job creation plans.
Although the survey focuses on nationwide trends and not state-specific data, small business owners in North Carolina also have cause for confidence and optimism. In June, when the optimism index was only slightly lower at 107.2, Spectrum News in North Carolina reported on this positive economic trend and spoke to NFIB/North Carolina State Director Gregg Thompson about it. Thompson said, “What we’re hearing is that tax reform is working, regulatory reform is working, and they’re able to put more back into their business.”
It’s no surprise, then, that North Carolina recently saw its fifth straight month of decline for the state’s unemployment rate. In July, ABC News 12 reported that the jobless rate dropped to 4.1 percent (from 4.2 percent in June). This is just above the national unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.
Approximately 70,000 more North Carolina residents reported having jobs in July this year than the same time in 2017, and overall, 4.8 million—an increase of 13,000 workers from June—North Carolinians are currently employed.
