The March Small Business Economic Trends data is largely reflective of small business owners’ and consumers’ reactions to a dramatic spike in oil prices. Small business owners are having to absorb those higher input costs and pass them along to their customers. NFIB Research Center Co-hosts, Holly Wade and Peter Hansen, calibrate what are considered significant changes in a month like this.  

Learn more about the February Small Business Economic Trends report and NFIB’s new Small Business Employment Index. 

Other highlights include: 

• NFIB’s Energy survey clearly showed energy was a large component of cost related to business operations (4:34) 
• The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 3.0 points in March to 95.8, leaving it below its 52-year average of 98.0 (6:36) 
• The biggest contributors to the decline in the index (9:23) 
• A large shift of 4 points in the health of their business (16:35) 
• Small business landscape in hiring plans and unfilled job openings (18:24)