WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 11, 2025) – NFIB Research Center Executive Director Holly Wade joined Alix Steel and Romaine Bostick on Bloomberg: The Close to discuss this month’s Small Business Optimism Index and the top issues impacting small businesses nationwide.

Wade analyzes NFIB’s March SBET survey and explains how Main Street owners are reacting to the economic environment, and how ongoing uncertainty impacts their operating decisions and, ultimately, their optimism regarding future business conditions.

“Small business owners still remain in this turbulent environment of uncertainty, not quite knowing how [new policies] might impact them, to what extent it might impact them…So, small business owners are in a bit of a wait-and-see mode to see what happens and how they should proceed forward and adjust business operations accordingly.

“Small business owners…are quite familiar with looking at their business operations and what they need to do to survive and keep those doors open…So, in the next few months we will see the extent to which the policies shifts will impact them and see how they’re moving forward and adjusting operations – whether that’s related to employment, prices, or scaling back or scaling up.

“When we look at our responses from March, the employment situation is still holding strong. So, while they’ve scaled back on plans to hire…the unfilled job openings levels are still very, very high, especially in those industries related to construction, manufacturing, and transportation.

“On the sales front, we saw a huge spike right after the election on [the percent of owners] anticipating increased sales. They were very enthusiastic about what that might mean for consumer spending. That has edged back quite a bit from the high level that we saw in December, and [the percent of owners expecting higher sales] has come down quite significantly. That was one of the main reasons for the drop in optimism this last month.”

Wade analyzes NFIB’s March SBET survey and explains how Main Street owners are reacting to the economic environment, and how ongoing uncertainty impacts their operating decisions and, ultimately, their optimism regarding future business conditions.