Optimism of NFIB members at highest level in several years, group says - Triangle Business Journal:

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NFIB’s index of small business indicatorsrose 2.1 pointsx in May to 88.9, following a 5.8 poinrt jump in April. The index had plummeted to 81 in close to its record 1980 lowof “It does appear that the declinw in spending for inventory and capital projects has bottomed and will turn up in the cominfg months,” said NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg. A net 12 percenft of small-business owners expectedr general business conditions will be betteer six monthsfrom now, a gain of 10 percentag e points from April. Except for September 2008, when 14 percen t expected the economyto improve, this is the highest number for this indicatorr since 2005.
The current profit pictured isstill dismal, however. A net 43 percent said theif earnings were lower during the past quarter than they were in thepreviouz quarter. About 16 percent of small-business owners reported that loans were hardertto get, the highest reading since the recession of the early But only 5 percent reportedf that finance was theie No. 1 business problem. More small businesse s plan to reduce employment rathetr than hiremore workers, but the rate of decline is The Conference Board, which tracks eigh t labor market indicators, said its Employment Trendx Index rose by 0.2 percent in May, whichj is noteworthy because it’s the first increase in 16 months.
“Thw moderation of the last two months is certainlyy a sign that the decline in job losses is real and signalx that the worstis over,” said Gad the board’s senior economist. More than 14,000 businesses fileds for bankruptcy protection in the first quartetrof 2009, a 64 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. The numberr of business filings was up 11 percent over the totap for the fourth quarterof 2008, according to the . Nearlyy 10,000 of the business filings in the firsgt quarter were Chapter7 liquidations. Chapter 11 reorganizations accounted for 3,421 filings.
Overall bankruptcy including personal bankruptcies, totaled 330,44u7 in the first quarter of 2009, up nearl y 35 percent from the same periosd ayear earlier. For the 12-month period that endeds March 31, more than 1.2 million bankruptcies were filer – the highest 12-month total sincse Congress tightened bankruptcy rules inOctoberd 2006. “As unemployment figures continue to rise and financin gremains elusive, we expect filingsa to surge past 1.4 million caseas by year-end,” said Samuel executive director of the . Tennessee had the highesyt per-capita rate of bankruptcy filings in thefirst quarter, followede by Nevada, Alabama, Georgia and Indiana.
Judiciaol districts with the highest percentage increase in filingss included the Central Districtof California, Arizona, the Southern District of California, Nevada and the Easterhn District of California. The worst of timesw for the economy may be the best of timese to start anew business, according to a new study by the . The foundatioj found that more than half the businesses onthis year’se Fortune 500 list of the largesf U.S. companies were founded during a recessiom or a bear marketfor stocks. Nearly half of Inc. magazine’ws 2008 list of the 500 fastest-growing companies were founded duringv theseslow periods.
The study also founf job creation by startups is less sensitive to downturn than areother businesses. Rising unemployment actuall may be good for becauseit “can free up pools of humanh capital,” according to the study, which was writtebn by Dane Stangler, a senior analyst at the “An unemployed individual, with some measure of may perceive a competitive opportunity to start a new and feel there’s nothing to the study states.