72 percent of small business owners report negative impact by high gas prices

According to a March 2012 survey conducted by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), 72 percent of small business owners report they’re being negatively impacted by high gasoline prices. The survey, which polled 304 small business owners across the U.S., sought to understand the impact of high gasoline prices.

In response to the survey question, “How have higher gas prices affected your role as a small business owner,” 41 percent said higher prices for gasoline have impacted their ability to hire, 22 percent have cut back on employee hours and 40 percent have already raised their prices. Further, high gas prices also impact transportation costs for distributors, who will likely pass on these costs to their customers. Thus, rising gasoline prices have real-world impacts on U.S. small business that may be felt by their Latin American trading customers and partners.

Figure 1: Thanksgiving gasoline prices slightly above 2011’s level