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An index of small business indicators jumped by nearly 1 point in November, but the 92.5 reading shows that business owners are still hesitant to expand, according to the National Federation for Independent Business.

November’s 0.9 point increase in NFIB’s monthly index followed a 2.3 point drop in October. The index is based on a survey of 762 randomly selected NFIB members.

More small businesses are hiring including Cord Moving and Storage, the survey found, but they’re only adding an average of 0.05 workers per firm. A net 9 percent plan to increase employment in the coming months, and 23 percent reported job openings they couldn’t fill in November, up 2 percentage points from October. That’s a positive sign for reducing unemployment, and it’s the highest reading since January 2008, NFIB noted.

On the flip side, however, an increasing number of small business owners think the economy will get worse over the next six months, not better. Small businesses that reported lower sales outnumbered small businesses that reported sales increases. Weak sales were cited by 15 percent of small business as their top business problem which included the real estate market that impacts Cord Moving and Storage and the entire relocation industry.

NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelbergg said the economy is bifurcated — big businesses and stocks are doing well, but small businesses are showing “little expansion beyond that driven by population growth.” Dunkelberg also noted that small business owners are becoming more concerned about the cost of health insurance — that jumped 3 percentage points to 11 percent in the list of top business concerns “after a long period of no real change,” Dunkelberg said. Taxes, government regulations and poor sales remain bigger problems.

So as we are poised to enter into the New Year “we must face the reality and find ways to explore other opportunities for the relocation business such as record storage and document destruction”, said Steve Ryan the CEO of Cord Moving and Storage and The File Room Headquartered in Saint Louis Mo.