Utah is an entrepreneurial place, with many residents involved in some kind of small business.
So it should come as no surprise that three-fourths of Utahns have “high confidence” in small businesses in the state, a new UtahPolicy poll finds.
On the other side of the scale, only one-fourth have high confidence in big businesses – perhaps like large banks, car manufacturers, airlines, cell phone-makers, and such, finds a new survey by Dan Jones & Associates.
Big national and international banks have come under scrutiny this year, with the presidential election campaign of Bernie Sanders (he wants to break them up) and the scandal of Wells Fargo, and its practice of setting up accounts its clients didn’t ask for to charge extra fees.
There have also been large recalls at some vehicle manufacturers and Samsung’s disastrous “burning” cell phone problems.
Jones finds that Utahns are split in their confidence of their local chambers of commerce – business organizations aimed at growing economic and business development in their areas.
Some chambers are fairly small, like the Sandy Chamber, or much larger, like the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.
Here are the numbers:
- 74 percent of Utahns have high confidence in their small businesses. (Jones asked respondents to rank their confidence in various institutions, 1-2 is “very little confidence,” 3 is neutral, and 4-5 is “very high confidence.”)
- 19 percent are neutral on small business.
- Only 5 percent had little confidence, and 2 percent didn’t have an opinion.
As might be expected, Republicans and those who self-identified as “very conservative” had more confidence in small businesses, 77 percent, and 79 percent, respectively.
Two-thirds of Democrats said they had high confidence in small businesses.
The opposite is found when Utahns are asked about their confidence in big businesses:
- Only 24 percent said they had high confidence in big businesses.
- 39 percent were neutral.
- 35 percent said they had little or no confidence in big businesses.
- And 2 percent didn’t have an opinion.
Democrats had the least confidence in big businesses, only 20 percent (one-fifth) said they had high confidence in big businesses.
- 49 percent of Democrats, almost half, said they have little or no confidence in them.
- 25 percent of Utah Republicans have high confidence in big businesses.
- 43 percent neutral.
- And 28 percent have little or no confidence in big businesses.
Jones found that 52 percent of Utahns have high confidence in their local chambers of commerce, only 14 percent had little confidence in the organizations.
- 58 percent of Republicans had high confidence in chambers, 49 percent of Democrats did, and 45 percent of political independent liked and trusted their local chambers of commerce.
Jones polled 605 Utahns from Sept. 1-9. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.98 percent.
