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Uncertainty grows among still-optimistic small business owners, survey finds

Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., weighs in on President Donald Trump’s economic agenda and its anticipated effect on ‘The Big Money Show.’

Uncertainty grew among American small business owners in January while optimism remained high, according to a new survey from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

The group’s uncertainty index rose 14 points to 100 last month, the third-highest recorded reading.

The Small Business Optimism Index also took a slight dip. It stood at 102.8 as of January, according to the NFIB survey.

People with face masks walk past restaurants on Main Street in Patchogue, N.Y., July 11, 2020. (Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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While that represented a 2.3-point decline in optimism on a monthly basis, it was still higher than the 51-year average of 98. The Small Business Optimism Index hit a six-year high in December.

In January, a seasonally adjusted net 47% of small business owners harbored expectations for the economy improving, according to the survey. That dropped five points.

Meanwhile, 17% indicated they were bullish about expansion, saying now was a “good time” to do so “substantially,” according to the NFIB.

“Overall, small business owners remain optimistic regarding future business conditions, but uncertainty is on the rise,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. “Hiring challenges continue to frustrate Main Street owners as they struggle to find qualified workers to fill their many open positions. Meanwhile, fewer plan capital investments as they prepare for the months ahead.”

Over one-third of small business owners said they were experiencing difficulties filling openings at their companies in January, the survey showed.

TRUMPONOMICS WILL TAME INFLATION – NOT MAKE IT WORSE

More than half of owners surveyed were looking to bring new workers on board at their small businesses in January. Many of those – 90% – were finding “few or no qualified applicants,” the NFIB said.

A “Now Hiring” sign posted on the window of a business looking to hire workers May 5, 2023, in Miami, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Labor quality and inflation were tied in January as the “single most important problem for business,” according to the NFIB. Eighteen percent of small business owners cited either of those as their main issue, with the share pointing to labor quality posting a one-point drop from the prior month.

Inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index increased 0.4% month over month and 2.9% year over year in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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When it came to capital outlays, a seasonally adjusted 22% of small business owners are looking to make investments in the coming six months, the NFIB also found. That share fell seven points.

About 58% reported capital outlays over the past half year, according to the survey.

February 11, 2025
Gallup survey results on favorability of the 5 living presidents

In a recent Gallup survey of adults living in the U.S., former President Joe Biden earned the lowest favorability and the highest unfavorability of all five living presidents, while former President Barack Obama was held in the highest regard.

While 57% held an unfavorable view of Biden, just 39% held a favorable view of him.

But Obama’s ratings were essentially the reverse, with 59% viewing the 44th president favorably versus just 36% who viewed him unfavorably.

TRUMP HAS HIGHER APPROVAL RATING THAN AT ANY POINT DURING FIRST TERM: POLL

Left: President Joe Biden during a wildfire briefing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025; Center: President Donald Trump attends a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C.; Right: Former President Barack Obama listens to Nika Kovač, Director of Slovenia-based Institute 8th of March as he moderates a conversation with her, Manu Meel, Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeUSA, and Ainka Jackson, Founding executive director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation during the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum on Dec. 5, 2024 in Chicago, Ill. (Left: Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Center: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Right: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Biden, who served as vice president throughout Obama’s terms, had just concluded his own White House tenure when the poll was conducted from Jan. 21-27.

President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.

The current commander in chief and former President Bill Clinton were both viewed favorably by 48% in the survey.

NEW POLL SHOWS WHAT AMERICANS THINK OF TRUMP’S PERFORMANCE IN SECOND TERM

(L-R) Former U.S. Vice Presidents Al Gore and Mike Pence, Karen Pence, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former U.S. President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, former U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump attend the state funeral for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

But while 50% viewed Trump unfavorably, just 41% felt that way about Clinton.

Regarding former President George W. Bush, 52% in the poll held a favorable opinion of him, and 34% held an unfavorable view.

TRUMP ADMIN DEPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF A CRIME IS WILDLY POPULAR AMONG NEW YORK VOTERS: POLL

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President George W. Bush attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

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Until recently, there had been six living presidents, but former President Jimmy Carter passed away late last year at the age of 100 years old.

“Results are based on telephone interviews conducted January 21-27, 2025, with a random sample of –1,001— adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level,” Gallup indicated.

Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.

February 11, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi to travel to New Orleans to survey Super Bowl LIX security

Pam Bondi will spend her first full day as U.S. attorney general Thursday traveling to New Orleans to survey security of the Super Bowl game this Sunday, Fox News has learned.

Her trip is part of an effort to highlight the administration’s broader commitment to crack down on violent crime and acts of terrorism.

Bondi will be accompanied by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, the Justice Department said, where she will meet with multiple law enforcement groups at the federal and local level, including DOJ components and the FBI field office.

BONDI’S DOJ DAY 1 DIRECTIVES; FIGHT WEAPONIZATION OF JUSTICE, ELIMINATE CARTELS, LIFT DEATH PENALTY BAN

Trump attorney general nominee Pam Bondi is seen testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, alongside a logo of the Justice Department. (AP Images/Getty)

Her visit comes less than two months after a man used a vehicle to ram through crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 30 others in what FBI officials said was being investigated as an act of terrorism.

While in New Orleans, Bondi plans to conduct briefings during the visit related to preventing another terrorist attack in New Orleans, DOJ officials told Fox News.

The visit comes as Bondi looks to move on her Day One prioritie— among them, cracking down on terrorist-linked or inspired attacks on U.S. soil.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.

February 6, 2025
Newsom-Trump war of words still simmering as president arrives in California to survey wildfires

When President Donald Trump lands in California on Friday to survey the devastating wildfires that have ravaged metropolitan Los Angeles this month, the state’s Democratic governor will be among the officials greeting him.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom is showing up uninvited.

“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” Newsom told reporters on the eve of Trump’s stop in Los Angeles.

Since the fires, which have killed nearly 30 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, broke out earlier this month, Trump has repeatedly criticized Newsom’s handling of the immense crisis. He has accused the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy, and pointing to intense backlash over a perceived lack of preparation, he has called on Newsom to step down.

UNINVITED NEWSOM SAYS HE’LL BE ON TARMAC TO GREET AND BRIEF TRUMP

People watch the smoke and flames from the wildfires in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Jan. 7, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)

“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post on Jan. 8, as he repeated a derogatory name he often labels the governor.

And in his first Oval Office interview since returning to power in the White House, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week, “This fire was just raging, and then it would catch to another area, another area, another area.”

“It took a week and a half — and I’ve never seen anything like it. We look so weak,” Trump argued in the appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” as he pointed towards his repeated claim that a main reason the blazes raged was because firefighters didn’t have access to water.

TRUMP PLEDGES FEMA OVERHAUL DURING STOP IN HURRICANE RAVAGED WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Trump and some top Republicans in Congress have pushed toward placing conditions on continuing the massive federal wildfire aid to California in order to force policy changes.

Newsom on Thursday signed a $2.5 billion state relief package. But California will need much more help from the federal government.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) tours the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on January 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Eric Thayer)

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down from the north to the south,” Trump said in his Fox News interview.

Newsom, the governor of the nation’s most populous state, one of the Democratic Party’s leaders in the resistance against the returning president, and a potential White House contender in 2028, has pushed back, as the two larger-than-life politicians trade fire.

The governor has noted that reservoirs in the southern part of California were full when the fires first sparked, and has argued that no amount of water could tackle fires fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Newsom has also charged Trump has spread “hurricane-force winds of mis-and-disinformation.

U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for North Carolina at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, January 24, 2025. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

And in a letter to Congress last week, Newsom emphasized that “our long national history of responding to natural disasters, no matter where they occur, has always been Americans helping Americans, full stop.”

The wildfires are far from the first time Newsom and Trump have taken aim at each other. Their animosity dates back to before Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.

The verbal fireworks continued over the past two years, as Newsom served as a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Biden and then former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer last summer.

Following Trump’s convincing election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to Trump-proof his heavily blue state.

“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump responded.

While pushing back against Trump’s attacks amid the wildfires, Newsom also knows he needs to work with the president.

President Donald Trump (center) looks on with California Gov. Jerry Brown (right) and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, as they view damage from wildfires in Paradise, California on November 17, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Newsom, who two weeks ago invited Trump to come to California to survey the damage, said in a statement on Monday following the inauguration ceremony, “I look forward to President Trump’s visit to Los Angeles and his mobilization of the full weight of the federal government to help our fellow Americans recover and rebuild.”

He emphasized “finding common ground and striving toward shared goals” with the Trump administration.

“In the face of one of the worst natural disasters in America’s history, this moment underscores the critical need for partnership, a shared commitment to facts, and mutual respect – values that enable civil discourse, effective governance, and meaningful action,” the governor said.

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Veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College noted that “this is a very difficult balance” for Newsom.

“As a governor of California, he needs to work with the president to get federal aid for the state. As a national political figure, he feels pressure to attack Trump. It’s hard to do both of those at the same time,” Pitney told Fox News.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

January 24, 2025