It’s improved.
Sabela Ojea, 6-13-2023, covers breaking financial news for The Wall Street Journal. Before that, she covered European banks and retail giants. She began her career as a Reuters trainee correspondent and multimedia producer. "U.S. Small-Business Confidence Improves Amid Inflation, Labor Quality Concerns," WSJ, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-small-business-confidence-improves-amid-inflation-labor-quality-concerns-9a57db80 ---ML
Confidence among U.S. small-business owners improved in the month of May, even though inflation returned to be their top operational concern, followed by labor quality.
The National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday that its small-business optimism index increased to 89.4 in May from 89.0 in April, well below the index long-term average.
Still, the reading came ahead of the 88.7 consensus forecast from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
The NFIB survey provides a monthly snapshot of small businesses in the U.S., which account for nearly half of private sector jobs.
The number of owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months declined one point from April to a net negative 50% in May.
Owners who reported job openings were hard to fill, on the other hand, improved one point to 44% when compared with April’s statistics.