Main Street Monday – Q2 Survey Results Find Business Conditions are Good
May 13, 2019
By Mary Miller
Contributing Editor, Main Street Monday
Main Street Monday – Q2 Survey Results Find Business
Conditions are Good
Key findings revealed in the latest survey from the CNBC/Survey Monkey survey, which polled 2000 small business owners, indicate that business conditions are good.
“Across a number of key fronts, small business owners’ expectations are rosier this quarter, adding to the evidence that we’re in the midst of hot economy,” says Jon Cohen, chief research officer at SurveyMonkey. “At the same time, the robust optimism we’ve seen among small business owners for tax policy improvements has faded as partisan rancor has increased in Washington, keeping the overall index in check.”
Here are the key findings:
- 56% of participants indicate current business conditions are “good,” up from 52% in Q1 2019.
- 60% of small business owners anticipate an increase in revenues, up from 57% in Q1 2019.
- 31% of small business owners anticipate an increase in the number of full-time employees, up from 28% in Q1.
The sum of these factors reflects an increase in the small business confidence index score, which increased slightly from 58 to 59 in Q2 2019.
The overall confidence index remains modest due to overall disappointment in the positive impact of tax policy changes.
- 28% of small business owners expect the tax policy to have a positive effect on their businesses over the next year, down from 31% in Q1 and 44% from Q2 2018.
Further survey findings continue to reflect difficulties small business owners face in finding qualified employees. Owners anticipate an increase in labor wages rising faster than the costs of both raw materials and capital.