Confidence at U.S. Small Companies Hits Three-Year High

Confidence among U.S. small companies rose in February to the highest level in three years as hiring and sales expectations increased, a survey showed.

The National Federation of Independent Business’s optimism index climbed to 94.5, the highest since the recession began in December 2007, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. The reading compares with the average 100.7 during the previous expansion that started in November 2001.

Hiring plans rose to the second-highest level since September 2008, a sign employment may pick up in coming months. At the same time, earnings expectations remained negative, and fewer businesses said it was a good time to expand.

“The future is looking brighter for a few more small- business owners,” William Dunkelberg, the group’s chief economist, said in the statement. Still, he said, “this is not a reading that characterizes a strongly rebounding economy.”

Figures on employment turned more optimistic. Small businesses with plans to add to payrolls rose 2 points to a net 5 percent. A net 15 percent of firms in the February survey said they were having trouble filling job openings, the highest level since September 2008.

“Employment in the small-business space is increasing slowly,” Kiran Patel, general manager at the small business group at Intuit Inc., which markets software solutions for small- and medium-sized firms, told a teleconference on March 2. “Things are a lot better today than they were 18 months ago, but we are far from being at the place where we were before the deep recession.”