NFIB: Small Business Sentiment "Crashed" and Economy "In the Tank"

When discussing small business sentiment, the words "Crashed" and "In the Tank" are not exactly what I want to hear. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) used these terms to describe what happened to small business optimism in August.

From Business Insider:

"Confidence in the future of the economy crashed in August, taking the Small Business PESSImism Index down 1.8 points to 88.1. This was the sixth monthly decline in a row. The expansion is officially two years and two months old, but the small business half of the economy is still in the “tank”. Expectations for real sales growth and business conditions were the major contributors to the decline for the second month in a row."

Here is the updated chart via Calculated Risk:

Hiring plans were still low in August, but positive and improving. According to NFIB: “A seasonally adjusted net 5 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, which is a 3 point improvement over July."

So we have that going for us.

Sources:

Small Business Economic Trends (NFIB)

Small Business Sentiment "Crashed" In August (BusinessInsider)

NFIB: Small Business Optimism Declined in August (CalculatedRisk)