After 19 months of Trump, small businesses the most optimistic in 15 years

Small business owners across the United States are the most optimistic they’ve been in the last 15 years.

The latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, which assesses small business owner attitudes on a wide variety of subjects, showed the index at +118, higher than at any time since a +114 index in 2006.

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The new figure, which was released Wednesday, has soared even since the +107 finding in the first quarter of this year.

The index was at -28 after two years of the Obama Administration and +80 when Trump took office 19 months ago.

You probably will not see much media news coverage of these events because 1) it is good news and 2) there are important and controversial Trump tweets to cover instead.

This optimism is vitally important for the economy because these 28 million-plus small businesses employ more than half of the nation’s entire workforce (53 percent) and create two-thirds of all new jobs.

It’s yet another sign that Donald Trump, who proclaimed himself the Jobs President, is delivering on his oft-promised jobs growth platform from the 2016 campaign.  The Heritage Foundation reported that nearly three million jobs have been filled since Trump’s inauguration, an average monthly growth of 191,000.

June figures showed 129.9 million full-time workers in the nation’s labor force, up from 127.3 million in April and 125.4 million in January. Most of them came in small businesses, 90 percent of which have fewer than 20 employees.

Clearly, this economic optimism based on growing consumer sales and reduced government regulations, is fueling much of the jobs growth.

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The index survey found more than three-quarters of small business owners (78 percent) saying their current financial situation was somewhat or very good up from 73 percent, more than two-thirds (69 percent) said their cash flow for the previous months was somewhat or very good, up from 63 percent earlier this year.

It found their cash flow expectations for the next year were 77 percent somewhat or very good, up from 72 percent, and expectations of crucial credit availability were 49 percent somewhat or very easy, up from 44 percent.

Thirty-five percent of the owners expect their employee rolls will increase over the next year. But they also listed their top concern as finding and keeping workers. Which helps explain reports of rising wages.

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