logo

Gallup: Small Business Hiring Intentions Decrease Significantly

image
Author: Kate Morris
Created: 13 December, 2012
Updated: 17 October, 2022
2 min read

“I’m ready to celebrate,” Matthew Clough said, reflecting back on a year that began with no guarantees.

Eleven months ago, Clough founded Stone + Cloth, a socially-motivated backpack company based out of Downtown Los Angeles. Every bag is made in the US and each one purchased supports a child’s education in Tanzania.

“Tomorrow we’re launching a new product," He reported. "Next year I’ll be hiring so I can focus entirely on building the brand.”

Though inspiring, Clough’s story of good fortune feels all too rare these days. Statistically speaking, that’s precisely what it is.

In fact, the job market for small businesses is bleaker than ever, according to the most recent Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey. Instead of expanding business, twenty-one percent of small company owners expect to decrease staff in the next six months – the most ever recorded since the Wells Fargo/Gallup collaboration report first published in August 2003. An additional sixty-one percent of owners expect no change in workforce numbers.

Clough stands with the seventeen percent of small-business owners predicting growth in the New Year – a three percent drop since Gallup’s Q3 findings.

“This is an eye-opening drop in optimism…among small business owners,” said Marc Bernstein, head of Small Business at Wells Fargo.

At one point things were looking up. “There was considerable improvement in small business owners' hiring expectations during much of 2012, prior to the recent November plunge,” according to Gallup. “Now expectations have deteriorated to tie the low recorded in 2008.”

IVP Existence Banner

Gallup highlighted a number of key drivers at play in the widespread uncertainty. Business owners admitted doubts about future financial security, cash flow, and capital spending (Forty percent of owners indicated a decrease — up from thirty-four percent from Q3) were listed as possible factors.

An overview projection of the present situation is a decrease in jobs and revenue for small businesses nationwide. In the past twelve months, approximately one in four owners lowered company headcount — the largest percentage since 2010. Forty-four percent reported a drop in revenue. This figure has risen significantly from July 2012.

According to Gallup, there may be more disappointment ahead for the already feeble job market:

  • Over the next twelve months, Gallop’s findings predict “owners will be adding fewer net jobs to their companies than at any time during the worst of the 2008-2009 recession.”
  • One in five small business owners (21%) expect to decrease employment over the next 12 months – the largest percentage of small businesses expecting to reduce jobs since the survey’s 2003 inception.

“I just feel lucky,” Clough remarked on his success.

Perhaps it’s luck, but it's more than that. Clough's company is surely listening to the current market. Tomorrow, Stone + Cloth launches product just in time for the final holiday push: A simpler bag that will sell at a lower price point.

“I’m not worried,” he says. “I’m hopeful for the future and have reasons to be excited about it.”

Latest articles

votes
Wyoming Purges Nearly 30% of Its Voters from Registration Rolls
It is not uncommon for a state to clean out its voter rolls every couple of years -- especially to r...
27 March, 2024
-
1 min read
ballot box
The Next Big Win in Better Election Reform Could Come Where Voters Least Expect
Idaho isn't a state that gets much attention when people talk about politics in the US. However, this could change in 2024 if Idahoans for Open Primaries and their allies are successful with their proposed initiative....
21 March, 2024
-
3 min read
Courts
Why Do We Accept Partisanship in Judicial Elections?
The AP headline reads, "Ohio primary: Open seat on state supreme court could flip partisan control." This immediately should raise a red flag for voters, and not because of who may benefit but over a question too often ignored....
19 March, 2024
-
9 min read
Nick Troiano
Virtual Discussion: The Primary Solution with Unite America's Nick Troiano
In the latest virtual discussion from Open Primaries, the group's president, John Opdycke, sat down ...
19 March, 2024
-
1 min read
Sinema
Sinema's Exit Could Be Bad News for Democrats -- Here's Why
To many, the 2024 presidential primary has been like the movie Titanic - overly long and ending in a disaster we all saw coming from the start. After months of campaigning and five televised primary debates, Americans are now faced with a rematch between two candidates polling shows a majority of them didn’t want....
19 March, 2024
-
7 min read