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Why no hiring? Taxes and health care, that’s why
Why no hiring? Taxes and health care, that’s why
Published by Bruce McQuain on July 17, 2012 | 1 ResponseAs I’ve mentioned many times, the engine of America is small business. Those businesses provide jobs to 85% of Americans. And according to the US Chamber of Commerce, they’re not going to be doing much if any hiring in the near future:
Small business owners’ concerns about the future—particularly on health care and taxes-—are impacting their hiring, according to the U.S. Chamber’s fifth quarterly small business survey released today.
Only one in five small businesses (20%) expect to add employees in 2013, according to the poll of 1,225 small business owners, conducted by Harris Interactive. The majority of small businesses say they are likely to keep the same number of employees over the next year – meaning there is likely to be little change in overall unemployment figures.
Concerns about health care and taxes (both brought to you by Barack Obama) are causing caution among small businesses and that’s because they perceive an “unsettled” business climate. Consequently there’s no incentive for them to change the status quo. In fact, they obviously believe there is some safety in the status quo (see the survey to see how they feel about their businesses locally) .
As we’ve mentioned repeatedly, government policy does have an effect on the economy. It can be an enabler that helps create incentives for businesses to expand and hire or it can be a disabler, doing precisely what it is doing now to unsettle the business climate, create disincentives for expansion or hiring and have small businesses go into a defensive posture.
It doesn’t get more defensive than now.
More from the Chamber survey:
- 78% want government to get out of the way.
- 90% are concerned about the impending fiscal cliff and are worried that Congress will fail to take action to prevent it.
- Nearly 60% say that expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax rates and other business provisions, coupled with sequestration, will directly impact their business’ growth.
As you might imagine the road map to a better business climate is not hard to follow. There’s just no desire by the class warriors to do that.
