Newtek Business Services, The Small Business Authority, with a portfolio of over 100,000 business accounts, announced today the findings of its SB Authority Market Sentiment Survey, a monthly window into the concerns of independent business owners. Based on a poll of over 2,600 respondents, one of the key findings from the April survey is 67% of business owners do not plan on hiring in the next 6 to 12 months. Additionally, 58% of business owners do not hire recent graduates. When looking at the current 8.2% unemployment rate, 26% of business owners believe that the rate will be higher on Election Day in November, while 40% think it will be lower and 34% believe it will remain unchanged.

The full April 2012 results showed the following:

Barry Sloane, Chairman, President and CEO of The Small Business Authority commented, "We surveyed over 2,600 independent business owners regarding their plans to hire over the next 6-12 months as well as their propensity to hire college graduates. Our findings solidified our thoughts and convictions that most small businesses are not optimistic about the future business climate and are hesitant to hire. More importantly, for college graduates the environment is still dictating that business owners, when given an opportunity to grow and hire, are not interested in entry level college graduates for fear of the time lag, energy and effort required to train them versus finding experienced personnel in the market that can make an immediate impact to the company's bottom line. The weak economy has also weakened the bid from business owners to hire college graduates that require time, training dollars, energy and effort until they are productive."