Financial markets are down about 10 percent so far this year, stoking fears that the country might be on the precipice of another recession. Other economic indicators are mixed: the unemployment rate is at an eight-year low, but the percentage of people who have dropped out of the labor force altogether is at a generational high. To try to stave off another recession and finally get the economy going again, federal and New York policymakers should make sensible regulatory and tax reforms to help small businesses, the engine of the American economy.
American small businesses account for half of all existing jobs and two-thirds of new ones, but new national polling commissioned by the Job Creators Network of over 400 small business owners suggests that they are struggling. Only one in five respondents said that they plan to hire additional employees over the next year. And, fewer than one in three respondents said they expect the next year to be easier to do business than in the last.
