The U.S. small business confidence went down last month, ending a third consecutive rise as expectations for future economic improvement weakened, a leading industry association said Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said that its Small-Business Optimism Index fell 1.6 points to 95 in June, reflecting small business optimism can't be sustained amid bad future expectations.
"The only two index components that increased in June were labor market indicators: the percent of owners with job openings and the percent planning to create new jobs in the coming months," said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg in a statement.
Among the rest eight falling index components, the net percentages of business owners' expectations for economy to improve fell the most by 10 points from the previous month.
"While reports of actual net job creation per firm were positive, consumer and business owner optimism remain low, with both spending growth and sales expectations weak. This means there are more jobs but not much more output," said Dunkelberg. "With election day months away and no sign of change in Washington, economic growth for the rest of the year will continue to be sub- par. The unemployment rate will fall more due to people leaving the labor force than to jobs being created and fewer hands making GDP."
More than 99 percent of all employing organizations in the United States are small businesses, which employ half of the country's labor force.