Two surveys released this week paint a very interesting economic picture.
Entrepreneurs are still creating new jobs. ADP’s Small Business Report for September shows that small businesses (fewer than 50 workers) created 28,000 new jobs last month while corporate America is hemorrhaging jobs, losing more than 170,000 over the past six months.
However, a new survey of 500 US small business owners conducted by Harris Interactive for ING DIRECT found that entrepreneurs are very worried about their current situation and about the future. Specifically the survey found that:
• 63 percent say are either very- or extremely-concerned about the future of the economy
• 57 percent see developing new business as their number-one challenge through the remainder of the year and “access to cash” ranked number-two at 18 percent
• 56 percent are now saving less money for personal and 53 percent are saving less for retirement savings compared to a year ago
• 40 percent see the current financial state of their business as worse than a year ago