Survey: Improvement in NJ Small Business Sentiment

On Jun 1, 2015

Thumbtack.com recently released the Thumbtack Small Business Sentiment Survey, a survey that captures the economic sentiment of more than 10,000 small businesses nationwide on a monthly basis, including 2,488 responses over two years in New Jersey. Released on a monthly basis, the survey and accompanying visualization allow anyone to explore American small business economic sentiment at the national and local level. Designed with Bloomberg, all data will be housed and integrated seamlessly into the economic functions of the Bloomberg Professional service.

The US Economic Census shows that over 90 percent of small businesses in the United States have five employees or fewer. Thumbtack’s survey is the first small business survey whose respondents reflect this specific demographic. While there are various indexes and surveys that seek to measure small business sentiment, there are no other surveys that have enough responses from businesses of this size to examine results at a state or city level.

Via its network of more than 150,000 active service professionals, Thumbtack has the unique capability to regularly survey this otherwise difficult-to-reach population.

“We are excited to be able to share this new survey, which will capture the sentiment of thousands of small businesses nationwide on a monthly basis,” said Jon Lieber, Chief Economist of Thumbtack. “Many of these business owners have few or no employees, and are often overlooked in other widely-tracked business surveys. We hope to offer new insights and a better understanding into what’s happening in this critical segment of the nation’s workforce and the American economy.”

The inaugural version of the survey shows a slow and steady recovery among New Jersey’s smallest businesses:

• New Jersey’s small businesses reported one of the largest gains in the country in their feelings about their current financial situation over the past year, jumping over 11 points (out of 100) along this metric
• Nearly 30 percent of small businesses in New Jersey reported they had attempted to hire a new employee within the past 3 months
• New Jersey ranked near the bottom on Thumbtack’s Inflation Expectations Index, with expectations for price pressures declining over the last year
• Like small business owners elsewhere, New Jersey business owners have shown a persistent optimism about the future, consistently rating their future financial conditions around 20 points higher (out of 100) than their current financial situation
• Nationwide the strongest growth in overall sentiment has been seen amongst the construction and transportation industries

The full results for New Jersey can be seen here and include details on the relative sentiment of each state and city, how businesses in each area responded to survey questions, and hundreds of quotes from small businesses nationwide. Each state and city also has its own dedicated webpage showing detailed survey results for that area.

 

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