The November reading of the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ small business optimism index jumped to 98.4 from 94.9 — its sharpest surge since 2009 — with all of the increase in sentiment coming after the U.S. elections held on Nov. 8.
“This month we bifurcated the data to measure the results before and after the election,” explained Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “The November index was basically unchanged from October’s reading up to the point of the election and then rose dramatically after the results of the election were known.”
Among those who were surveyed following the election, the balance of opinion on whether business conditions were expected to improve skyrocketed from a reading of -6 to a whopping +38.
For the month as a whole, this subindex improved to 12, from -7, to reach its highest level since 2014. Similarly, the balance of opinion on sales expectations jumped by 10 percentage points to +11.
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