Reasons for Optimism
By: Mike Earl, CFP®, CPWA®
One danger of watching or listening to the news is that you might miss many of the reasons to be optimistic. You might not hear the media tell you that small business owners today are more optimistic than ever (at least dating back to the 1975 inception of this poll from the NFIB):
According to the SBA (Small Business Administration, a government organization), there are 30.2 million small business in America. Those businesses account for 99.9% of US businesses and 47.5% of US employees.
This small business optimism translates into more jobs for Americans, as we witness below with small business hiring plans also being at record-highs (dating to 1986):
U.S. job openings have been on a steady climb since we came out of the Great Recession. With nearly 7 million jobs currently open, the harvest is plentiful:
In fact, there are more job openings today than persons looking for work:
These signs help underscore the strength of the US economy today. Many clients ask us if the stock market is stretched beyond the underlying fundamentals. We don’t think so. Let these charts be an antidote to some of the negativity you see in the media.
Sources:
2) SBA
Because The Wealth Group, Austin B. Colby & Associates is independent of Raymond James, the expressed written opinions above are our own and not necessarily reflective of Raymond James’ opinions.