Optimism among small business owners continued to climb in May, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.  The NFIB's Small Business Optimism Index is now at 92.2: 

The survey saw improvement in seven of the ten index components.  One area that remains low is small business owners' optimism on the labor markets.  William Dunkelberg and Holly Wade, the report's authors, write:

Nine percent (seasonally adjusted) reported unfilled job openings, down two points and historically very weak. Over the next three months, seven percent plan to reduce employment (unchanged) and 14 percent plan to create new jobs (unchanged), yielding a seasonally adjusted net one percent of owners planning to create new jobs, two points better than the April reading. Since the third quarter of 2009, job creation plans have seriously underperformed the recoveries from the other two deep recessions covered by the NFIB survey. Coming out of the milder 1991 recession, construction added more than 100,000 jobs and 20,000 new firms in a year's time.

If small businesses are the driver for job creation, this survey doesn't suggest a significant turnaround soon.  Read the full report here.