Small Business Optimism Declining About COVID-19 Recovery: NRF Economist

The economic fallout “continues as a shock,” said National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. Census Bureau weekly surveys “highlight the fragility” of small businesses, he said. Though some of the most “pervasive difficulties” early in the pandemic eased as the economy began reopening, small business optimism declined, said NRF on Tuesday. Earlier canvasses found 25% of small businesses predicted recovery would take two or three months. Only 4.1% of respondents polled in the week ending Aug. 15 thought recovery might be possible in that time.