Poll: Small-business owners fear economic situation

February 16, 2012

Politico

MJ LEE

Most small businesses that aren’t hiring say they don’t want to bring on new employees at this time because of concerns about the economy, as well as fears about the cost of health care, according to a new poll Wednesday.

Seventy-one percent of those surveyed said revenues/sales wouldn’t justify hiring additional workers, while 66 percent expressed worries about the overall economic situation, Gallup found. Seventy-six percent of small businesses said they simply don’t need any more workers at this time.

Gallup said that 85 percent of the small businesses survyed indicated that they are currently not looking for new workers.

Meanwhile, 48 percent of those not hiring said it was due to concerns about possible rising health care costs, while 46 percent said they were worried about new government regulations.

“The debate over why U.S. small-business owners aren’t hiring more aggressively tends to hinge on whether overall business conditions, including a lack of growth and revenue, are the primary culprit as opposed to the potential cost of healthcare and government regulations. Apparently, both sides of the debate are correct,” Gallup said.

Almost one in four small-business owners who are currently not expanding their workforce, 24 percent, said they are holding back from hiring because they are worried about no longer being in business in 12 months.

And while 65 percent of small-business owners said they have as many employees as they need, 29 percent said they have fewer workers than needed.

The Gallup Poll was conducted Jan. 9-13 among 600 small-business owners and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story said health care costs and government regulations were the reasons small businesses were not hiring; the current version reflects the Gallup poll finding the economic factors are even more important reasons for the lack of hiring.

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