San Diego’s small businesses are somewhat positive about the economy, scoring among the bottom of the pack, according to a nationwide survey released Thursday.
According to the the Small Business Sentiment Survey, released by Thumbtack.com, a San Francisco-based online hiring service, San Diego scored 43rd out of 55 cities for economics outlook. In addition, consumer confidence also fell by five percentage points, compared to last year.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, the number businesses surveyed that say they feel uncertain about the economy fell by two percentage points compared to last year year.
Interestingly, business owners surveyed ranked taxes and inflation among the least of their worries.
The survey also shows a slow and steady recovery among small businesses in California. The economic sentiment improved by 5 percent, but is still below the national average of 7 percent, compared to last year. But California business owners, as with the rest of the nation, are also overwhelmingly optimistic about the future, rating their expectations of their future financial condition consistently 25 to 30 percentage points higher than their perceptions of their current financial situation.
The company claims the survey is the first to capture the sentiments of more than 10,000 businesses nationwide on a monthly basis. Thumbtack says it will update the survey on a monthly basis.
“We are excited to be able to share this new survey,” Thumbtack’s chief economist Jon Lieber said. Many of the businesses participating in this survey are often overlooked in national studies because have have too few employees, if any, he said.
According to the U.S. Economic Census, more than 90 percent of small businesses have five or fewer employees.
“We hope to offer new insights and a better understanding into what’s happening in this critical segment of the nation’s workforce and the American economy,” Lieber said.
The company say its survey was the first to have enough of a sample size to examine the results at a state or city local level. The survey was conducted in partnership with Bloomberg.
