Q4 2021 Small Business Confidence Index decreases to a score of 44, nearly matching the all-time low of 43 in Q1 2021
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. and SAN MATEO, CA, December 7, 2021 — CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, and Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey), a leader in agile experience management, today announced the results of their quarterly CNBC|Momentive Small Business Survey.
The fourth quarter survey finds more small business owners are seeing higher prices and supply chain disruptions than in previous surveys. Three in four small business owners (75%) say they’re experiencing higher supply costs, up from 70% in Q3 2021, and more than half (58%) are experiencing supply chain disruptions, up from 55% last quarter. Thirty-four percent of small business owners say inflation is the biggest risk to their business right now and 23% say supply chain disruptions are the biggest risk.
The survey, which was conducted from November 10-16, 2021, also revealed small business owners are increasingly concerned about government intervention, from regulations to tax and trade policy. More than half (63%) of small business owners expect changes in tax policy to have a negative impact on their business over the next 12 months, up from 60% in Q3 2021, and almost half (49%) expect changes in trade policy to affect them negatively, up from 43% last quarter. Small business owners are also largely opposed to key pillars of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure law and Build Back Better act, which passed the House last month. As a result, President Biden’s approval is at a new low among small business owners. Additionally, 62% of small business owners say the Biden Administration has been “bad” for small businesses and 64% say it’s been “bad” for the economy.
“Rattled by supply-chain disruptions and an ever-tightening labor market, confidence is slipping across the board among the country’s small businesses,” said Jon Cohen, Chief Research Officer at Momentive. “There’s also widespread and growing concern about federal policy, views that are deepened by a hyper-charged political landscape.”
Each quarter, CNBC and Momentive poll over 2,000 small business owners aiming to measure the vitality of the American economy as well as the view from Main Street on jobs, taxes, and other hot topics. In addition to measuring small business confidence nationwide, the large sample size gives CNBC and Momentive the power to uncover trends by geographic region and among specific small business cohorts.
Additional key findings from the Q4 2021 CNBC|Momentive Small Business Survey include:
Biden’s approval rating craters among Independent small business owners who don’t align with either the Republican or Democratic parties:
- 33% of Independent small business owners approve of President Biden’s job performance, down from 51% in Q3 2021.
- 52% of independents say the Biden administration has been bad for Small Businesses.
- 60% of independents say the Biden administration has been bad for the economy.
Little support for “Build Back Better” policy proposals:
- 52% of Small Business owners say none of the proposals included in the Build Back Better bill would help their businesses.
- 21% say construction of more affordable housing would help their businesses (including 30% of those in Real Estate and 30% of mining and construction small businesses).
- 20% (and 40% in the healthcare industry) say Medicare and Medicaid expansion would help their businesses.
Labor shortage concerns continue, but have not worsened:
- 28% of small business owners say they have open roles that they have been unable to fill for at least three months, down slightly from 31% in Q3 2021.
- 21% of small business owners say their headcount has decreased in the last three months, a slight uptick from 19% last quarter.
- Half (50%) of small business owners say it has gotten harder to find qualified workers in the past year.
CNBC Small Business Reporter Kate Rogers will reveal the results of the CNBC|Momentive Small Business Survey today, Tuesday, December 7th throughout CNBC’s Business Day programming. For more information on the survey including the full results and methodology and in-depth articles, go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/cnbc-small-business-q4-2021/.
Methodology:
Momentive created a unique Small Business Confidence Index (SBCI), which is a 100-point score based on responses to eight key questions. The index is calculated on a scale from 0–100 and is based on the responses to eight key questions. A zero indicates no confidence, and a score of 100 indicates perfect confidence. The fourth quarter of 2021′s SBCI has decreased to an overall value of 44 from 45 in the third quarter.
This CNBC|Momentive online poll was conducted November 10-16, 2021 among a national sample of 2,078 self-identified small business owners ages 18 and up. This quarter, we also reached 9,029 individuals who do not own small businesses. Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the results among small business owners and 1.5 percentage points for results among those who do not own small businesses.
Data for small business statistics have been weighted according to business characteristics (industry and number of employees) according to the Small Business Administration’s 2013 Statistics of U.S. Businesses. Additionally, person-level data (age, gender, level of education, race, geography) for business owners have been weighted to the Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Business Owners.
For more information contact:
CNBC
Jennifer Dauble
201-735-4721
CNBC
Stephanie Hirlemann
201-397-2838
Momentive
About CNBC:
CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business content consumed by more than 355 million people per month across all platforms. The network’s 14 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 5:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC’s global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC’s highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.
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About Momentive:
Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey) is a leader in agile experience management, delivering powerful, purpose-built solutions that bring together the best parts of humanity and technology to redefine AI. Momentive products, including GetFeedback, SurveyMonkey, and Momentive brand and market insights solutions, empower decision-makers at 345,000 organizations worldwide to shape exceptional experiences. More than 20 million active users rely on Momentive to fuel market insights, brand insights, employee experience, customer experience, and product experience. Ultimately, the company’s vision is to raise the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices. Learn more at momentive.ai.
