President Trump’s late-2017 tax cuts once bolstered small business confidence, but there’s new evidence that those positive effects may have already peaked, according to the latest CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Confidence survey.
Small business owners are now more pessimistic than ever in this quarterly survey about the prospects for tax and regulatory policies in the year ahead.
Still, improved expectations for hiring and revenue along with better overall sentiment regarding current business conditions offset these changes, keeping the overall index score at about the same level it has held for the past two quarters.
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
Question text:
Which one of the following issues matters MOST to you right now?
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?
In addition to yourself, how many employees work at your small business?
Is your business a:
Overall, would you describe current conditions for your business as good, middling or bad? In the next 12 months, do you expect your business’s revenue to increase, stay the same, or decrease?
In the next 12 months, do you expect your business’s staff of full-time employees to increase, stay the same, or decrease?
In the next 12 months, do you expect changes in government regulations to have a negative effect, no effect, or a positive effect on your business?
In the next 12 months, do you expect changes in trade policy to have a negative effect, no effect, or a positive effect on your business? In the next 12 months, do you expect changes in technological innovation to have a negative effect, no effect, or a positive effect on your business? In the next 12 months, do you expect changes in immigration policy to have a negative effect, no effect, or a positive effect on your business?
In the next 12 months, do you expect your business’s staff of full-time employees to increase, stay the same, or decrease?
Has your company ever advertised on Facebook?
If the government decides to regulate how Facebook and other online platforms use and distribute users’ personal data, do you think it would make the ads… How does your ad spending on Facebook compare with other online advertising you might buy?describe current conditions for your business as good, middling or bad? Overall, thinking about your spending on Facebook ads over the coming months, do you plan to?
As you may know, periods of economic growth are followed by periods of recession. Do you think a recession over the next year is… Do you think interest rates right now are too high, too low, or about right? Which of the following do you expect to increase the most over the next 12 months?
Compared to a year ago, would you say it’s gotten easier or harder to find qualified people to hire?
*businesses
