A seasonally adjusted net 16% of business owners planned to create new jobs in the next three months, down 2 percentage points (pp) from November. The percentage of owners thinking it’s a good time to expand was 8%, unchanged from the previous month. 40% of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, the same as in November.
A net negative 11% of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months, a 6-pp improvement from November. The net percent of owners raising average selling prices was unchanged from November at a net 25% seasonally adjusted. The net percentage of owners expecting higher real sales volumes improved 4 pp to a net negative 4%.
3% of owners reported that all their borrowing needs were not satisfied (up 1 pp). 25% reported all credit needs met (unchanged) and 61% said they were not interested in a loan (down 2 pp). A net 8% reported their last loan was harder to get than in previous attempts (unchanged).
Read the NFIB report.
