by Thumbtack
Sentiment nationwide has stabilized in the past two months, after a steady decline from an all-time high in March of this year.
Key findings for Thumbtack’s October Small Business Sentiment Survey:
- National small business economic optimism in October was scored at 63.75 on a 100-point scale.
- Midwestern and northeastern states were the least optimistic in October, while only southern states as a region had a better outlook than the national average. Sentiment in the west has for the past three months closely mirrored the national average.
- After collecting nearly three years of quarterly data and six months of monthly data, the sentiment data is getting better at making predictions about other economic news releases.
Survey methodology
Thumbtack.com has surveyed tens of thousands of small businesses quarterly since December 2012. The survey asked questions about how small businesses are feeling about the general economic environment and health of their business, such as:
How would you rate your company’s financial situation today?
Have you attempted to fill any part-time or full-time positions over the past three months?
How do you expect the prices you charge to your clients or customers to change over the next three months?
Thumbtack.com and Bloomberg then used the survey responses to create a weighted index that demonstrates Small Business Economic Sentiment in one easy-to-understand number between 0 and 100 – an index score above 50 means sentiment is positive; an index score below 46 means sentiment is negative. The full methodology paper can be found here.
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