For large companies, it looks like things are starting to improve. Demand is picking up and it's getting much easier to access financing. Even IPOs are finding buyers.

Yet, when it comes to small businesses, the situation is still tough. In fact, small business confidence has reached an eight-month low, according to the index from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

A key problem is consumer apathy. Unfortunately, this could last awhile.

A recent report published by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) gives indications that although American small businesses are certainly tightening their game plans a bit, they are by no means going down for the count. The report reviews a number of important indicators, testing everything from optimism to inventories. A casual read of the complete survey provided in PDF format, provides proof that while small businesses are actively adjusting to current economic trends, in many ways they're simply applying some timely critical thinking within a "business as usual" format.

Some statistical highlights that I picked out from the report really gave me pause to wonder. For instance, 46% of the business owners responding reported that when attempting to hire new employees, they were faced with a lack of qualified applicants for the jobs they wished to fill. Overall the survey indicates that current and pending employment opportunities are steady to strong for 2008, while the available labor pool remains tight. We could speculate that depressed entry level wage scales have some bearing on this situation.