WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 12, 2025) – NFIB Research Center Executive Director Holly Wade joined Brad Smith of Yahoo! Finance to discuss this month’s Small Business Optimism Index.

Wade shares data from NFIB’s February SBET survey and the issues that are important to small business owners. Wade emphasizes that small business owners are still optimistic about business conditions, while noting labor and inflation remain top concerns.

Watch Wade’s interview here: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/small-business-uncertainty-nears-record-180000317.html

“Small business owners in February still found themselves in a fairly comfortable position in the economy – optimistic about things moving forward. Especially from the previous year, where the index was quite low, historically speaking. So, there is still a lot of energy out there among small business owners, just tapered off a bit since right after the election.”

“So, for small business owners, labor is still the single most important problem for about 19%, so about one in five are saying that labor is their biggest problem in operating their business. We have still record levels of job openings, especially in those industries related to, now retail, construction and transportation. So, those are the three top industries that we’re seeing from business owners in having those job openings. Compensation pressures are still alive in the small business sector with historically high levels of business owners saying that they have increased compensation to attract those applicants for those open positions to retain current employees. So, the labor market is still strong. Twelve percent say that labor costs are their single most important problem. So, that’s driving some of the inflation pressures that small business owners are seeing. And then, there’s the uncertainty index, where that has spiked quite significantly over the last couple months, with more small business owners not confident about what to expect in the next couple months as far as the conditions of operating their business.”

“Well, inflation is still one of the bigger problems for a lot of small business owners. That is still registering in our survey. But when we ask about their assessment of the health of their business, about two-thirds of them say that their business is doing good or even excellent. So, the majority of small business owners evaluate themselves as a business looking pretty good in this current economy, or in February.”

###

For 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.