Majority of small businesses wish they had additional help navigating employee benefits

Washington, DC, June 25, 2025 — The Q2 2025 MetLife/U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index is 65.2, up from last quarter’s Index Score of 62.3 but still down from this time last year (69.5). Small businesses are more optimistic about their business health and cash flow, as well as their view of the U.S. economy. However, views of future expectations are mixed. Slightly more small businesses expect to increase staff in the next year compared to last quarter. However, while the number that expect to increase revenue is stable from last quarter, it is down compared to this time last year.

This quarter, inflation continues to be the biggest challenge facing small business owners. However, concerns have dipped significantly after reaching an all-time high last quarter. The same is true for concerns over revenue. Along these lines, some of the reported impacts of inflation on businesses have softened from 2022.

A majority of small businesses say that figuring out what benefits to offer employees is challenging, and a similar percentage wish they had outside help. The information landscape on benefits is scattered, with no one place being the dominant or primary source. Lastly, views on employee benefits differs greatly by generation. Small businesses owned by Gen Zers or Millennials are more likely to report offering employee benefits, and to say these benefits have a wide range of uses.

For more information about this study, please click here.

About the Study

These are the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between April 16th and May 5th, 2025. For this survey, a sample of 760 small business owners and operators age 18+ from the continental U.S. Alaska and Hawaii was interviewed online in English.

The sample was randomly drawn from partner online panel sources that specialize in B2B sample and does not rely on a population frame in the traditional sense. Ipsos uses fixed sample targets, unique to the study, in drawing sample. Small businesses are defined in this study as companies with 500 or fewer employees that are not sole proprietorships. This sample calibrates respondent characteristics to be representative of the U.S. small business population using standard procedures such as raking-ratio adjustments. The source of these population targets is U.S. Census 2020 Statistics of U.S. Businesses dataset. The sample drawn for this study reflects fixed sample targets on firmographics. Post-hoc weights were made to the population characteristics on region, industry sector and size of business. Additional post-hoc weights were made to the population characteristics on the gender of the business’s owner and whether the business is minority-owned or not. The source of these two weight variables is the Small Business Administration’s 2022 Small Business Profiles.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online non-probability polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points for all respondents. Ipsos calculates a design effect (DEFF) for each study based on the variation of the weights, following the formula of Kish (1965). This study had a credibility interval adjusted for design effect of the following (n=760, DEFF=1.5, adjusted Confidence Interval=+/-5.9 percentage points).

Starting with the March 2020 survey, small business decision makers are reached via an online survey, in place of the typical phone-based approach. This methodological shift is in response to lower anticipated response rates in dialing owners at their businesses as a result of mandated closures related to the COVID-19 outbreak. While significant changes in data points can largely be attributed to the recent economic environment, switching from a phone to online approach may have also generated a mode effect.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Mallory Newall

Vice President, US

Public Affairs

+1 202 374 2613

[email protected]

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