Economy, Small Business | featured news

Senators rejected dueling Democratic and Republican small-business tax cut plans on Thursday, the latest futile effort to break the election-year gridlock that’s consumed Capitol Hill on issues dealing with jobs and the economy... “There is no reason for [Republicans] to have killed this bill other than they are trying to hurt President Obama, small businesses and the middle class,” Reid, who introduced the bill, said at a news conference.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered a series of modest steps aimed at helping small businesses, his latest election-year effort to counter Republican attacks on his economic record and show voters he is trying to tackle high unemployment.

Less of the labor force is working in small businesses than in the early 1990s. After a brief resurgence from 2001 to 2004, the share of private sector employment in companies with between 1 and 249 employees has fallen.

Faribault, Minn., is a long way from Silicon Valley, and Faribault Woolen Mill Company may be a far cry from the typical startup. But when cousins Chuck and Paul Mooty first toured the vacant 147-year-old mill in July 2011, they knew the dilapidated building with a flooded basement and outdated equipment was the kind of business that could spark a manufacturing revival -- even a revolution.

President Barack Obama sent Congress today a package of small business measures he said would expand tax relief and unlock capital to boost the economy and create jobs.

Small businesses in the United States grew more confident in the economy's future for the second straight month during October as their outlook for business conditions improved, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

President Obama this evening rolls out a plan to inject $447 billion into the ailing economy through tax cuts aimed at working families and small businesses and spending to rebuild infrastructure, proposing a larger cash infusion than expected – and, perhaps, more than Congress will seriously consider.

The U.S. labor market could stay sluggish for a while, with small-business executives reluctant to hire amid the murky economic outlook, a Chamber of Commerce survey showed.

Martin Foil's company sells yarn that winds up in clothes from the Gap, Ralph Lauren and American Apparel, and business is growing. He's buying new machines and hopes to hire as many as 200 workers this year....

U.S. small-business owners believe a U.S. economic recovery is unlikely to accelerate before the second half of 2011 amid worries about issues such as healthcare costs, according to a quarterly survey.