"77 percent of small business owners do not plan to hire any more workers"

The Small Business Accounting Solutions Perspective on Economic Recovery survey couldn't be much worse. From US News:

• 64 percent of respondents believe that the U.S. is either in or is headed toward another recession.

• 65 percent of business owners believe the economy has had a negative impact on their business for the last six months; 45 percent believe the economy will have a negative impact on their business during the next six months.

• 45 percent of business owners don't feel the economy has an impact on the number of employees they have.

• 77 percent of business owners think they will maintain the number of employees they have; 7 percent believe they will increase their employee count over the next six months and 8 percent believe that they will decrease their employee count over the next six months.

• 48 percent of business owners would like to hire but can't because of various reasons including economic uncertainty (65 percent), lack of revenue (59 percent).

• 77 percent of small business owners have sought access to financing this year; 67 percent found it more difficult to obtain financing than in the past; 61 percent were able to obtain the financing they were looking for.

• When asked about the effect the U.S. debt downgrade would have, 31 percent responded negative, 41 percent said no effect, and 27 responded don't know.