Exclusive: Concerns over inflation among small business owners returns to near record high, poll shows

Concerns over inflation among small business owners have returned to a near record high, according to a Job Creator’s Network Foundation (JCNF) poll exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The February survey included 400 small business employers who were asked about the state of the U.S. economy, with 7% describing it as excellent, 24% as good, 45% as only fair and 25% as poor. Inflation is the main concern for small business owners, with 47% of them ranking it as their first or second biggest concern, up 6% from last month and close to the record high of 49%.

The poll’s Small Business Intelligence Quotient (SBIQ), an index tracking overall small businesses’ optimism, stayed approximately the same as last month at 56.2 and close to what it was a year ago when it was 55.2. The SBIQ is a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being the best and 0 being worst.

“Mainstreet is not a fan of the Biden administration, with a ratio of two to one entrepreneurs saying that policies pushed by the White House are having a net negative effect on small businesses,” said Elaine Parker, president of the JCNF, in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Small businesses have been forced to grapple with persistently high inflation because of out-of-control government spending, rising compliance costs spurred by government red tape, and policymakers that continually threaten to raise taxes.”

This poll follows an uncharacteristically strong jobs report on Friday, which most economists hadn’t anticipated.

Almost 60% of small business owners are worried that economic conditions might force their business to close, a slight dip from January, according to the poll. This is particularly true for those with revenue between $250,000-500,000 at 72%, followed by 67% of minority-owned businesses and 65% of female-owned businesses.

Small business owners also believe, by a 3 to 1 ratio, that Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements of single transactions of $600 or more will negatively impact Mainstreet.

The sample of 400 small business employers has an accuracy of +/- 4.9% at a 95% confidence interval.

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