Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

US economy

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30% of Small Business Owners Fear Closing in 2013

The latest Gallup Poll indicates that many American small-business owners are anything but optimistic when it comes to the way the Obama administration is leading the nation. In fact, they’re downright fearful.

According to the recently released Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, when small-business owners in the United States were asked why they weren’t hiring new employees, a striking 61 percent said that it is because they are “worried about the potential cost of healthcare.” This analysis indicates that a good majority of Americans are not sold on ObamaCare and fear the toll that it will take not only on businesses, but on the economy as a whole — as it is implemented across the nation.

Another dismal outlook for 2013 came from a different response business owners gave when asked about reasons behind their hiring freeze.

“At the bottom of the list, but still at a surprisingly high level, 30 percent of owners say they are not hiring because they are worried they may no longer be in business in 12 months,” Gallup reports. “This is up from 24 percent who had the same worry in January 2012.”

When asked the same question about why they haven’t hired, an exceedingly high 66 percent of the 601 small business owners interviewed by Gallup expressed that they were “worried about the current state of the U.S. economy.”

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Recession Ended Three Years Ago? Why do 43 states not have enough jobs?

Three years since the recession ended, 43 states have yet to regain the jobs they lost in the downturn. The figure is a reminder of how weak the nation’s job market remains.

The states that are the furthest behind in job growth are those that were hit hardest by the housing bust: Arizona, Florida and Nevada.

Overall, the U.S. economy has 3.5 percent fewer jobs than it did before the Great Recession, which began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate has been stuck at 8.2 percent.

As slow as the recovery in jobs has been, a few states are doing quite well. Seven have more jobs now than before the recession. Some — North Dakota, Texas and Alaska — are benefiting from an oil boom.

But most states have lagged behind.

“Except for these energy-producing states, everywhere there’s still this caution in terms of hiring,” Steve Cochrane, a regional economist at Moody’s Analytics, said.

Last month, unemployment rates rose in 27 U.S. states, the most in almost a year.

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US Economy Continues to be Weak

The outlook for the U.S. economy appeared dimmer Monday after a report that Americans spent less at retail businesses for a third straight month in June.

The report led some economists to downgrade their estimates for economic growth in the April-June quarter. Many now think the economy grew even less than in the first quarter of the year, when it expanded at a sluggish 1.9 percent annual rate.

Spending in June fell in nearly every major category _ from autos, furniture and appliances to building, garden supplies and department stores. Overall, retail sales slid 0.5 percent from May to June, the Commerce Department said.

Retail sales hadn’t fallen for three straight months since the fall of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

Stocks fell after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 74 points in early trading. Broader indexes also declined. Later in the morning, stocks regained some of their losses.

“However hard you look, there’s just no good news in this report at all,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

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