The
National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB)'s small business optimism index slipped to 95.3 in September from 96.1 August.
That leaves the index 5 points below the pre-recession average that prevailed from 1973 to 2007. The decline stemmed from weak readings in job openings and planned capital outlays.
"Small businesses just can’t seem to get out of second gear," Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at NFIB, said in a statement.
Answers to the 10 index component questions would have to improve a combined 50 percentage points to bring the index back to the average, he said.
"That’s a lot of positive responses to make up to get back to average much less reach a level that means a solid recovery. . . . Overall, small business owners are still stuck in a rut that has been difficult to escape."
Meanwhile, small business owners have mixed views over raising the minimum wage. Ken Jarosch, owner of Jarosch Bakery in Elk Grove Village, Ill., told
The Associated Press that he will have to raise prices and hire fewer part-time workers if the state's minimum wage rises.
"I'd have to increase my prices about 2.5 or 3 percent," he said.
But Rick Poore, who has a screen printing and embroidery business in Lincoln, Neb., told the AP that a proposed minimum wage increase to $9 from $7.25 in his state won't "break my bank."
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