According to the National Federation of Independent Business, after March's disappointing drop in small business confidence, April’s Index of Small Business Optimism rose 2.6 points to 92.1, just above the recovery average of 90.7. In April’s report, 4 Index components rose, 2 fell and 4 were unchanged. Yet pessimism abounds within the sector, as still far more of those surveyed expect business conditions to be worse in six months than those who think they will be better.

“Small-business confidence saw an uptick this last month, but it was a ho hum, yawn, at-least-it-didn’t-go-down reading. The sub-par recovery persists for the small business sector,” said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg.

Dunkelberg added, “Economic performance is contradictory—corporate profits are at record levels and the stock market hits new highs, yet GDP growth for the past six months has averaged about 1.5 percent and the unemployment rate is 7.5 percent. Nothing in the NFIB data suggests that the small business half of the economy is expanding other than by an amount driven by population growth and associated new business starts now in excess of terminations. The lack of leadership in Washington and the resulting uncertainty depresses consumers’ and business owners’ willingness to spend and invest, and make bets on the future.”

Owners were asked to identify their top business problem: 23 percent cited taxes, 21 percent cited regulations and red tape and 16 percent still cited weak sales. Only 2 percent reported financing as their top business problem. A quarterly break-out of top business problems by sector will be released next Tuesday.

To read the full survey, click here.