Small Business Finance News
Big Business Confident While Small Business Struggles
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 6/15/2011
CEOs of big business are confident, but small business owners are pessimistic, according to two new reports.
Dramatizing the gap between current big business and small business mindsets, the Business Roundtable's CEO Economic Outlook Survey for the second quarter of 2011 reveals a high level of big business optimism about increased sales.
The Business Roundtable describes itself as "an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 13 million employees." Of the CEOs who responded to the Roundtable's latest survey, 87 percent expect sales to go up in the next six months.
The Roundtable report contrasts the National Federation of Independent Business June 2011 Optimism Index. One in four of the small business owner respondents to this survey named weak sales as their top problem.
And while 51 percent of the Roundtable respondents said they plan to hire in the next six months, only 13 percent of small business owners told the NFIB they plan to hire. Furthermore, 8 percent said they anticipate reductions in their workforce, leading to a net negative number for job creation in the small business sector.
NFIB's chief economist, Bill Dunkelberg, was blunt about the situation in the website post announcing the organization's survey results. He said, "Corporate profits may be at a record high, but businesses on Main Street are still scraping by."
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