Small Business Snapshot (September 16, 2024): Main Street Measurements

Summary

Small Business Snapshot dated September 16, 2024 summarizing economic indicators for small business owners. It says 40 percent of owners reported openings they could not fill, up two points, and that the CPI inflation rate declined slightly to 2.5 percent year over year. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 2.5 points to 91.1, the largest drop in over two years, and the Uncertainty Index rose to 92. It also reports a 4.2 percent unemployment rate, a labor force participation rate of 62.7 percent in August, and 230,000 initial unemployment claims for the week ending September 7, 2024, up 2,000.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

Snapshots

SMALL BUSINESS SNAPSHOT

September 16, 2024

In the month of September, small business owners expressed rising concerns with their future business outlook as well as for the economy at large, with inflation remaining as the most important issue in running their business. Filling vacancies has also been a persistent problem for small business owners across the board, with 40 percent of owners reporting openings they could not fill, up two points from last month. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, released earlier this month, showed the inflation rate declined slightly to 2.5 percent year over year, lower than originally forecasted. Core CPI, which excludes the more volatile measurements of food and energy, rose slightly more than expected by 0.3 percent from the previous month. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) monthly Small Business Optimism Index fell by 2.5 points to 91.1, erasing all of July’s gains and marking the largest drop in optimism in over two years. August also marked the 32nd consecutive month spent below the 50-year average of 98. The Uncertainty Index rose by another two points up to 92, nearing levels seen at the peak of the pandemic when businesses were increasingly unsure about their future prospects. While uncertainty has continued to rise, this month’s CPI report provides some hope for small businesses, coming in slightly cooler than expected. This coupled with the lower than expected August jobs report and July’s report being revised to the lowest level in over four years means that the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates at their meeting this week. While a rate cut will provide small businesses with some relief for borrowing costs, they are still facing prices over 20 percent higher than just a few years ago along with the worst profit trends seen since March of 2010, continuing Main Street’s struggles.

The below September 2024 Small Business Snapshot features numbers and updates to provide more insight into the current small business economy.

MAIN STREET MEASUREMENTS:

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (INFLATION)

The prices consumers paid for goods and services increased 0.2 percent in August as compared to July and totaled a 2.5 percent increase when measured over the last 12 months.

PRODUCER PRICE INDEX

Wholesale prices increased 0.2 percent in August and had an increase of 1.7 percent year over year.

JOB OPENINGS

At the end of July, businesses were unable to fill 7.7 million jobs, 3.3 million workers quit their jobs, and the number of layoffs and discharges changed little.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

142,000 jobs were created in August, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.2 percent.

LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE

The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.7 percent in August.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

For the week ending September 7, 2024, the Department of Labor reported that initial unemployment claims were 230,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s level.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims of initial claims totaled 230,750, up slightly from the previous week’s average.

File and source

File

407077_2024-09-16_small-business-snapshot.html

Size

26,696 bytes

SHA-256

d3f613082bb167f3ba0968e7135454a36a428efdca013e6a4866a210ffeb1765

Our copy

407077_2024-09-16_small-business-snapshot.html

Original

smallbusiness.house.gov