By Kathleen Madigan
Confidence among small businesses “went nowhere” in August, says a report released Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business‘s small-business optimism index slipped to 94.0 last month from 94.1 in July.
While the top index moved little, the NFIB said the subindexes experienced much churning, some of it conflicting.
The earnings trend subindex plunged 13 percentage points to -35%, as more small businesses reported declining sales.
Small business owners anticipate better sales in the future. The expected real sales subindex jumped 8 percentage points, to 15% in August, even though the expected business conditions subindex fell 4 points to -10%.
The new job creation index jumped 7 percentage points to 16% in August, a level not seen since 2007. Overall, though, owners reported a net decline in employment averaging 0.3 worker per firm. The NFIB’s subindex covering “job openings hard to fill” fell 4 points to 16%.
“It all averaged out to no gain in the index, but with an unusually inconsistent set of internals,” the NFIB said.
With demand weak, small business have little pricing power. Seasonally adjusted, the net percentage of owners raising selling prices fell 2 points to 2%, the NFIB reported.
Looking ahead, a net 20% of owners plan price hikes in coming months, a 5-point rise from July. The NFIB said the price hikes were planned to address the “degraded profit performance.”