The Index of Small Business Optimism gained 1.8 points – it felt like spring! The numbers have been depressing for so long, any little progress looks good. The new reading is still well below the average (prior to 2008) by 8 huge points and below the comparable level in the recovery that started in 2001 by 14 points. But there was more supportive news in the details. Eight of the 10 Index components were unchanged or improved. The labor market components posted nice gains, expectations for real sales gains turned positive and the outlook for business conditions became a lot less negative. So the improvement, although small, was widespread and the forward looking components posted solid gains.

The economy is slowly righting itself, dealing with a huge excess supply of assets created in the 2003-2007 boom and the associated debt incurred to create those assets and take consumption to a record high share of GDP (the “party”). The 2000 stock crash left winners with cash and losers with worthless shares of lostmoney.com. We moved on, winners and losers declared. The housing bubble crash left a different set of assets for us to deal with. Declaring, even finding, winners and losers is a mess, not the least due to government trying to determine the outcomes. Not worthless pieces of paper but millions of houses, apartments, condos and less often discussed, retail stores, strip malls, restaurants and the like and a pile of inventory to get rid of. This process is difficult and protracted. In 2007, 845,000 new firms were formed (displacing 804,000 existing firms). This process went into reverse in 2008. More firms terminated, fewer started, fewer new homes were built, inventory went on sale to raise cash and employment was slashed as the now surplus of firms struggled to survive. Many of these sought loans to “tide them over”, loans that by now would in most instances have gone bad had they been made.

The adjustment seems to be about over. Historically high percentages of owners report inventories are in balance, reduced to match anemic consumer spending. However few plan to add to stocks as prospects for improved growth have not been optimistic. Firms have stopped firing workers, employment has adjusted to weaker sales, but hiring new workers remains muted, as sales prospects offer little reason to hire more workers. Most equipment is still working requiring little need to buy new stuff. Still a problem is the number of firms competing for reduced levels of consumer spending, experiencing poor financial performance. There is likely more to come here, more terminations. This will increase sales at the remaining firms and with a boost from modestly improving consumer spending, begin to address the unemployment problem a bit more aggressively. The excess supply of structures will continue to be a drag, but less so.

Improvements in consumer sentiment have been grudging as have the gains in owner optimism, little is happening that would make any of them more confident about the future course of the economy. It will take an election to “clear the air” and provide more certainty about our direction. The Index is still 2 points below where it was in January, not exactly progress over the year.

The bulk of the unemployed were created in the small business sector, some from business failures but more by existing owners reducing employment to cut costs. Firms with fewer than 20 workers employed 20 percent of private sector workforce in 2007 but accounted for a third of the employment decline in the recession. These “existing” firms will have to re-hire many of the workers they let go to get employment back on track. Hopefully the process is getting underway.