A large portion of small business owners are concerned about their future amid wider financial stress under President Joe Biden, according to a new poll from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Around 67% of small business owners were worried that current economic conditions could force them to close their doors, ten percentage points higher than just two years ago, according to the JCNF’s monthly small business poll. Respondents’ perceptions of economic conditions for their own businesses fell slightly in the month, from 70.2 to 68.1 points, with 100 points being the best possible business conditions, while perceptions of national conditions increased from 50.4 to 53.2 points.
“Small businesses are more vulnerable to high taxes and costly regulatory environments compared to their large corporate counterparts,” Elaine Parker, president of the JCNF, told the DCNF. “That’s why it’s no surprise that 26% of small businesses say they’ve considered relocating to a different state or city to chase more favorable tax rates and escape government red tape. This is an opportunity for free-market minded governors to continue making their states stand out from the crowd by implementing pro-growth policy reforms that will ignite Main Street.”
Around 46% of all workers in the U.S. are employed by small businesses, totaling 61.6 million people, according to Forbes Advisor.
Small businesses are also increasingly dealing with the effects of crime, with 44% of owners saying that crime has increased in their area, while only 39% said that it has stayed the same, according to the JCNF. The most likely group to say crime has increased were businesses generating less than $100,000 a year at 55%, while those with $1 million or more in revenue were the least likely to say that crime is increasing.
.@JobCreatorsUSA‘s new report says the Biden administration has finalized 923 federal rules costing $1.6T since 1/2021. $1.2T in costs from rules finalized this year. Ooof: https://t.co/xDg8n9rwoC
SCOTUS reining in #ChevronDoctrine + federal bureaucracy can’t come fast enough. pic.twitter.com/7nzeWHF6ky
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) May 31, 2024
Inflation remained the biggest concern for small business owners, rising slightly to 49% in May compared to 48% in March, followed by the general health of the economy and client spending, according to the JCNF. Inflation continues to remain elevated, measuring 3.4% in April, with prices increasing 19.3% since Biden first took office in January 2021.
The share of small business owners who said that complying with local, state and federal regulations is time-consuming jumped to 58% in May, higher than the 54% that responded that way in April, according to the poll.
The Biden administration has finalized regulations imposing costs of over $1 trillion in just the last few months as agencies rush to protect their regulatory actions from possible rollback measures in the event that Biden loses the 2024 election.
Owners also held a overwhelmingly negative view of the president’s performance in helping small businesses, with 60% rating his performance negatively in May compared to 38% who rated it positively, according to the poll. The most common grade given for Biden’s performance by those surveyed was an “F” at 36%, followed by a “C” at 18%.
Americans as a whole also hold a negative view about Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation, with a poll conducted in early May showing that 49% of voters thought that the president’s policies had hurt the economy compared to 28% who thought they had helped. Around 80% of voters surveyed put inflation in their top three financial stressors.
Many businesses are still reeling from the loss of economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 34% of small businesses closing from January 2020 to May 2021, according to the World Economic Forum.
The poll is a national survey of 400 small business employers conducted between May 2 and 19, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9%.
The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.
Featured image credit: (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)
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