President Donald Trump’s approval rating among small-business owners reportedly has hit an all-time high.
A total of 64 percent of small-business owners approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, the highest approval rating for Trump among entrepreneurs since CNBC and SurveyMonkey began conducting a quarterly survey in 2017.
The percentage of small business owners who say they “strongly approve” of how Trump is handling his job reached 47%, also a new high; it had never been above 40% in previous surveys.
Meanwhile, small business owners have received some upbeat news on the economy this month, the Associated Press explained.
Retail sales figures released last week howed that consumers were inspired by unseasonably warm weather to spend on their homes in January, but that overall sales growth was modest. The Commerce Department reported a 0.3% gain last month following a 0.2% gain in December.
Although economists called the report disappointing, they noted that more consumers are working, a good omen for higher retail sales in the coming months. January employment reports from the Labor Department and payroll processor ADP showed strong job growth at companies of all sizes.
The ADP report also showed that small businesses are joining larger companies in stepping up their hiring. ADP’s business customers with up to 49 staffers added 94,000 jobs in January after creating 66,000 positions in December. The two-month showing was a big improvement over the nearly 31,600 new jobs ADP counted on average each month in 2019. In 2018, the monthly average was 52,000.