Q1 2022 Small Business Confidence Index holds steady at a score of 44 out of 100, identical to last quarter's score and nearly matching the all-time low score of 43 in Q1 2021
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. and SAN MATEO, CA, February 14, 2022 — CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, and Momentiv, maker of SurveyMonkey and a leader in agile experience management, today announced the results of their quarterly CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey.
The first quarter survey finds that inflation continues to be top of mind among small business owners and even though the number of small business owners who say they are experiencing rising costs of supplies (74%) is the same as last quarter's survey, more of them are now passing the costs on to their customers. Almost half of small business owners (47%) say they had to raise their own prices as a result of higher input costs, up from 39% in Q4 2021, and another third (32%) say they'll have to raise prices if costs continue to rise. Eighty-two percent of small business owners say inflation is "very" or "somewhat likely" to be a problem for their businesses six months from now and the majority (71%) say they are not confident in the Federal Reserve's ability to control it.
Concerns about inflation are contributing to Small Business Owners' general pessimism. Just 33% of respondents to this quarter's survey, which was conducted from January 24-30, 2022, say overall business conditions are "good," down from 36% in Q4 of 2021. That helped keep the Small Business Confidence Index below 50 for the sixth straight quarter, despite an improved outlook among small business owners for business revenues and slightly less negativity about regulatory and tax policy changes.
"Inflation is far and away the top business concern nationwide right now, and it's one that's hitting small businesses particularly acutely," says Jon Cohen, chief research officer at Momentive. "The country's small businesses owners are increasingly turning to price hikes in response to their own rising costs, and they're nervous about the Fed's ability to settle accelerating prices."
Each quarter, CNBC and SurveyMonkey 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 SurveyMonkey the power to uncover trends by geographic region and among specific small business cohorts.
Additional key findings from the Q1 2022 CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey include:
President Biden's approval at its lowest level yet:
· 33% of small business owners now approve of the way President Joe Biden is handling his job as president while 67% disapprove.
oBiden's approval rating fell 6 points among small business owners who are Democrats (89% in Q4 2021, 83% now) and 4 points among Republicans (9% in Q4 2021, 5% now)
oApproval increased by 9 points among Independents (33% in Q4 2021, 42% now).
· 62% of small business owners who Approve of President Biden also say they are confident in the Federal Reserve's ability to control inflation
o12% of those who disapprove of Biden express confidence in the Fed.
Impact from Omicron:
· 30% of Small Business Owners say dealing with employees missing work because of a positive COVID test has been a "major problem" for them in recent weeks.
o 35% say COVID absences have been a "minor problem"
o 48% of small business owners in the healthcare and social services industry say this has been a major problem recently, the highest of any industry.
· 62% of small business owners support additional federal aid for small businesses dealing with the effects of COVID, including 49% of Republican small business owners.
Cybersecurity is still not perceived as a threat among small business owners:
· Only 5% of small business owners report cybersecurity as the biggest risk to their business now, unchanged from 6% in Q4 2021.
· 4 in 10 are concerned their business will be the victim of a cyber-attack within the next 12 months, unchanged from 41% in Q4 2021.
CNBC Small Business Reporter Kate Rogers will reveal the results of the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey today, Monday, February 14th 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-q1-2022/.
Methodology:
Momentiv used its SurveyMonkey product to create 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 first quarter of 2022′s SBCI has held steady at an overall value of 44 from Q4 2021.
This CNBC|SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted January 24-30, 2022 among a national sample of 2,227 self-identified small business owners ages 18 and up. This quarter, we also reached 10,150 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.
About CNBC:
CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage, business content and general news consumed by more than 547 million people per month across all platforms. The network's 15 live hours a day of news programming in North America (weekdays from 5:00 a.m. - 8:00 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.