Skip to main content

Home > Releases > Small Business Credit Survey > Small Business Credit Survey: Experienced at Least One Financial Challenge: Retail Employer Firms

Small Business Credit Survey: Experienced at Least One Financial Challenge: Retail Employer Firms (SBCSS10B5V3FRB)

Observations

2025: 99
Updated: Jul 30, 2026 2:06 PM CDT
2025:  99  
2024:  97  
2023:  98  
2022:  97  
2021:  83  

Units:

Percent,
Not Seasonally Adjusted

Frequency:

Annual

Fullscreen

Notes

Title Release Dates
Small Business Credit Survey: Experienced at Least One Financial Challenge: Retail Employer Firms 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Source    
Federal Reserve Banks (Fed Small Business) 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Release    
Small Business Credit Survey 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Units    
Percent 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Frequency    
Annual 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Seasonal Adjustment    
Not Seasonally Adjusted 2026-03-03 2026-03-03
 
Notes    
The Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) is an annual survey of firms with fewer than 500 employees that is fielded from approximately September through November each year. The SBCS is not a random sample; results should be analyzed with awareness of potential biases that are associated with convenience samples.

This series is based on the question: “Which of the following financial challenges, if any, has your business experienced during the past 12 months?” and is the share of firms that experienced at least one financial challenge in the 12 months prior to the fielding of the survey. Firms were classified as having experienced a financial challenge based on having selected at least one response option from a list of response options or entering a separate challenge in the “other” field. The response options included, but were not limited to, “weak sales,” “paying business expenses,” “making payments on debt,” “uneven cash flow,” and “credit availability.” Response options presented in the question varied somewhat by survey year to reflect changing conditions. Comparable data for 2016 are not available.

See SBCS questionnaires (https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/our-data/questionnaires) for detailed information on the questions in the survey.

SBCS terminology and definitions can be found here (https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/our-data/terminology-and-definitions).

2026-03-03 2026-03-03

Release Tables

Related Data and Content

Content Suggestions

Related Categories

Business Surveys Production & Business Activity

Releases

More Series from Small Business Credit Survey

Tags

Federal Reserve Banks (Fed Small Business) Small Business Credit Survey Small Business Employer Firms Financial Retail Copyrighted: Citation Required Annual Nation United States of America Not Seasonally Adjusted