A pandemic loan relief program for small business owners has paid more than $2 billion to borrowers who never qualified for it in the first place, federal records show. The amount was disclosed as a result of a request by Conservative MP Brad Vis, who represents the riding of Mission-Matsqui in B.C., according to Blacklock’s…

Optimism among America’s small business owners fell last month, with many of them deeply concerned about the negative effects of inflation, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index fell 0.8 points to 91.3 in October, which is the 10th straight month the index has remained below the…

American small-business owners are pessimistic about future economic conditions as inflation weighs down on their operations, according to the latest survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The proportion of owners expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months fell two points, to a net negative 44 percent, an Oct. 11…

Small-business sentiment saw an improvement in August, but continued to remain depressed, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose by 1.9 points last month, to 91.8, data from a Sept. 13 press release showed. Though the index reversed some of the declines seen…

About 45 percent of small business owners in the United States are freezing the hiring of new workers because of high labor costs and skyrocketing inflation, according to the Alignable July Hiring Report. A competing survey came up with similar results, interviewing 4,739 small business owners, conducted from late June through mid-July. This is despite 51…

Small-business owners in the United States are now more pessimistic about the future of the American economy, even though they expect revenues to increase, and inflation is their primary concern, according to the 2022 Small Business Owner survey published by the Bank of America (BoA). The share of small-business owners who expect their local economies…

LUBBOCK, Texas—Phillip Howard pointed toward a stack of black ski pants piled atop a counter in his winter sports shop as evidence of the hurdles small business owners still face as the pandemic drags on. The pants were supposed to arrive by August at Troy’s Ski Lubbock shop in west Texas—well before his five-month hot…