March 2014
| Business World Magazine | 11
nomic policy will be dominated by cam-
paigning, not sensible strategies to improve
economic growth and job creation. This
will, barring a surge in economic activity un-
doubtedly worsen unemployment and job
opportunities in the future.”
A review of the index indicators includes:
Job Creation: NFIB owners increased em-
ployment by an average of 0.12 workers per
firm in January (seasonally adjusted), half
the December reading, but a solid number.
Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of the own-
ers (down one point) reported adding an av-
erage of 3.7 workers per firm over the past
few months. Offsetting that, 11 percent re-
duced employment (up one point) an aver-
age of 3.3 workers, producing the seasonally
adjusted net gain of 0.12 workers per firm
overall. The remaining 76 percent of owners
made no net change in employment. Forty-
six percent of the owners hired or tried to
hire in the last three months and 38 percent
(83 percent of those trying to hire or hiring)
reported few or no qualified applicants for
open positions.
Hard to Fill Job Openings:
Twenty-two
percent of all owners reported job open-
ings they could not fill (down one point).
Fourteen percent reported using temporary
workers, unchanged from December.
Sales:
The net percent of all owners (season-
ally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales
deteriorated two points to a net negative
10 percent. Fourteen percent still cite weak
sales as their top business problem, the low-
est since June 2008. The monthly peak was
34 percent, set in early 2010. Seasonally un-
