“Today’s groundbreaking numbers are demonstrative of what I’m hearing everyday from small business owners – that business is booming. As the tax and regulatory landscape changed, so did small business expectations and plans,” said National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan. “We’re now seeing the tangible results of those plans as small businesses report historically high, some record breaking, levels of increased sales, investment, earnings, and hiring.”
The details came in a series of statements to the Daily Business News on MHProNews. As long-time readers may recall, NFIB has hundreds of members in manufactured housing, but they have a total membership of some 325,000. They’re a serious force in Washington, D.C., and have had the President of the United States (POTUS) Donald J. Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence personally address their trade group.
A net 10 percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months compared to the prior three months, up two points, stated the NFIB. They said that August is the ninth consecutive strong month of reported sales gains after years of low or negative numbers.
The net percent of owners planning to build inventories rose six points to a record net 10 percent, the 14th positive reading in the past 22 months.
The frequency of reports of positive profit trends rose two points to a net one percent reporting quarter on quarter profit improvements, the second highest reading in the NFIB survey’s 45-year history.
“At the beginning of this historic run, Index gains were dominated by expectations: good time to expand, expected real sales, inventory satisfaction, expected credit conditions, and expected business conditions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Now the Index is dominated by real business activity that makes GDP grow: job creation plans, job openings, strong capital spending plans, record inventory investment plans, and earnings. Small business is clearly helping to drive that four percent growth in the domestic economy.”
As reported in their recent NFIB’s monthly jobs report, a seasonally adjusted net 26 percent of owners plan to create new jobs. 38 percent of owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, both survey highs.
Sixty-two percent of owners reported trying to hire, with 89 percent of those owners reporting few or no qualified applications for their open positions.
A record 25 percent of owners cited the difficulty of finding qualified workers as their Single Most Important Business Problem, up two points from last month. That’s this morning’s “News through the lens of manufactured homes, and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
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