During the campaign, Donald Trump kept underscoring that what the U.S needs is someone who knows how to run the economy. In no small measure, that message resonated. Even polls during the campaign when Hillary Clinton was strongly leading it shows that Americans trusted in Trump's ability to effectively run the economy more than they did with Hillary. After his upset victory, the results of a new report validates such confidence in Trump's competence in economic matters.
A new survey reveals that President-elect Donald Trump is inspiring better optimism among small businesses.
The November Index of Small Business Optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business ( NFIB) shows that America's small businesses are feeling such unprecedented hope as the November index of 98.4 rose 3.5 points from October. Such score is higher than the index's 42- year average, and is only the third time since 2007 that the index rose above its usual average.
The results of the election in all likelihood made all the difference that Juanita Duggan, President and CEO of NFIB raves that before Election Day, small business owners' optimism was flat, and after the Election Day, it just soared.
Providing a major boost in the rise in the optimism level is owners' expectation of better business conditions which rose to a dramatic 44 percent. The picture cannot get any clearer: before the election, expectations of better conditions dropped six percentages points; after the election, it amazingly skyrocket by 38 points.
The upbeat mood is vastly different from what has been seen and experienced in the last 8 years of the Obama administration. If the encouraging optimism level is sustained, NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg believes that it can very well translate to an increase in business activity which may include hiring more jobs and expanding operations. In fact, still according to the index, plans among business owners to hire new workers rose 14 percent points from pre-election to post-election.
The contributions of small businesses to the American economy cannot be underestimated or undermined as they comprise 99.7% of all businesses, as well as 63% of net new private sector jobs and 48.5% of overall private sector employment.
Duggan says that small business owners are clearly encouraged by the election results, or in other words-by Trump's victory ,but they are also expecting the incoming President and congressional leaders to deliver much needed reforms. Some of the problems small businesses have been struggling with under the Obama administration are federal taxes, regulations ,and the very controversial and contentious Obamacare.
It also helps that Trump himself is a business owner-although he is a billionaire who prior to the election was running an empire he also did not start as big. He worked hard to bring his businesses to great heights. That is why the future Chief Executive will always understand the views, hopes and aspirations of small businesses.
