US Economy Gets Boost by Small Business Growth

SHORT HILLS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dun & Bradstreet DNB, the world's leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses, today released its December 2014 U.S. Economic Health Tracker which provides a monthly, multi-dimensional perspective on the U.S. economy, including small business health, total job growth, and overall U.S. business health. According to Dun & Bradstreet's proprietary data, small business health has improved by nearly 5 index points since last month, fueling a 3.6% improvement in overall U.S. business health for November, year-over-year.

“Nearly all performance indicators, from housing starts to business viability, are trending upward,” said Paul Ballew, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Dun & Bradstreet. “This sustained momentum offers evidence to support our cautiously optimistic view of economic growth in the next year.”

On Main Street, access to traditional lending remains somewhat constricted, though Small Businesses increasingly manage to pay their creditors on time. Restricted capital has caused businesses of all sizes to rely more heavily on credit cards, resulting in a slight uptick in delinquency in payments overall.

The economy added an estimated 236,000 new non-farm jobs in November, driven largely by the still-robust Business Services sector, but also supported by gains across retail, construction, trade transportation, utilities, and manufacturing.

November 2014 Highlights
Small Business Health Index       See and share this chart				D&B's Small Business Health Index improved nearly 5 points in the latest reporting period, driven by a marked decline in payment delinquency.
U.S. Jobs Health   See and share this chart				An estimated 236,000 new non-farm jobs were added to U.S. payrolls in November 2014, with notable gains in business services, manufacturing, construction, trade transportation, retail and utilities.
U.S. Business Health   See and share this chart				U.S. business health strengthened 3.6 percent in November 2014 compared to November 2013.

Media Resources

• Watch Ballew share his perspective on the state of the U.S. economy in a short video.
• To download the December U.S. Economic Health Tracker Infographic, visit www.dnb.com/tracker.
• Access the 2014 planned publishing schedule, FAQs, and archived reports at www.dnb.com/tracker.
• Follow D&B Economic Insight daily on Twitter at @DnBEconomy.

About D&B's U.S. Economic Health Tracker and Methodology

This forward-looking perspective on the U.S. economy offers insights and monthly data using three macro indicators: (i) the D&B Small Business Health Index, which measures year-over-year small business performance through payment patterns and credit use; (ii) the D&B U.S. Jobs Health Indicator, which combines Small Business Health Index industry data with BLS figures to forecast monthly non-farm payroll employment; and (iii) the D&B U.S. Business Health Index, which provides a year-over-year weighted average of the D&B Viability Score™, D&B Delinquency Predictor™, and D&B Total Loss Predictor™. D&B publishes its monthly U.S. Economic Health Tracker on the first Tuesday morning of most months and reporting periods reflect the most recent and complete month. The index ranges from zero (with all businesses recording high levels of risk) to 100% (with all businesses recording low levels of risk). This is based on data available as of November 21, 2014.

About Dun & Bradstreet^® (D&B)

The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is the world's leading source of commercial data, analytics and insight on businesses. Our global commercial database contains more than 240 million business records. We transform commercial data into valuable insight which is the foundation of our global solutions that customers rely on to make critical business decisions.

D&B provides solution sets that meet a diverse set of customer needs globally. Customers use D&B Risk Management Solutions™ to mitigate credit and supplier risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability, and D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions™ to provide data management capabilities that provide effective and cost efficient marketing solutions to increase revenue from new and existing customers.

For more information, please visit www.dnb.com or follow @DnBUS.