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The nationwide survey of 206 owners, presidentx and CEOs of businesses with five to 499 employees wasconductefd Nov. 17-23 and suggests there has not beenan "optimisn bump" after the election of Barack Obams as president, at leas not in small-business circles. The survey shows that most respondents are worriedd aboutthe economy, expect a long downturn, and are more pessimistidc about their own companies' prospects than they were a shor t time ago. • Eighty-twk percent of those surveyed in November said the financial meltdown had affectedtheir business.
In the prior survey, taken in Octoberf as the $700 billion financial bailouf plan made its waythrougnh Congress, 73 percent said they had been • Another 80 percent said they were "vert concerned" about the U.S. economy, with 62 percent blaming bankersand sub-prime lenders for the economicx mess. • When asked how they expected thingds to shake out at their own companiess in the next12 months, 37 percen said "a little better" or "a lot -- a slight erosion from Octobere (after the bailout was announced but beforwe the presidential election) when 40 percenty were optimistic. When askecd that same question back in 78 percent of respondentswere bullish.
• Businessw owners by and large don't expectt a quick turnaround. On average, they expect the economg to take 2.4 years to turn • Thirty-seven percent expect their businessz prospects toget worse, while 26 percent expecr prospects to remain the same. A substantial minority, 41 percent, were "veryu concerned" about the long-terkm survival of their own companies. That's actuallyu a more encouraging number than it was back in at what we now know was the early stage of what has beena year-longt recession. Then, 47 percent were "very concerned" about long-term survival.
But the number has grown sincee October, when only 35 percent rated themselves "veryy concerned." • About the only significant bright spot came in the area ofenergyg costs. Concern over rising energy costa has declined as the price of oilhas Forty-five percent were "very down from 77 percent in June, when the averagwe price for a gallon of gas was Business owner sentiment mirrored the most-recenyt Beige Book report from the . The anecdotal report from the Federal Reserve's regional banks showed weaknes s acrossall sectors, in every region of the Consumer spending was down in most regions, accordingy to the report released Dec.
3, lending was and the labor market was The City Business Journals Network is an affiliate of representing 66 businesspublications — including located in major markets across the country.
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