The spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant is causing a drop in confidence among small businesses in the U.S. That’s according to a Vistage Worldwide Inc., survey of more than 560 businesses for the Wall Street Journal.

The number of small-business owners expecting economic conditions to improve in the U.S. is at 39%. That’s down from 50% in July and 67% in March.

And 20% of business owners expected economic conditions to worsen. That’s up from15% a month earlier, but still quite better than April 2020 when it was as high as 57%.

"It's not so much that they are pessimistic, but that they are less optimistic about growth," said Richard Curtin, a University of Michigan economist who analyzed the data. The impact of the Delta variant comes after a year of COVD-19 restrictions, more competition in hiring workers and other pandemic-driven shifts in the economy.

An expert from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that small firms showed stronger gains in employment for the first half of the year. Many also benefited from a federal program that provided potentially forgivable loans.

Back in 2017, the Small Business Administration said that companies with fewer than 500 employees had employed 60.6 million people, or 47.1% of private-sector workers.

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