Optimism, hiring up slightly?

The nation's small business owners are becoming more optimistic about their own economic prospects, according to one nationally recognized economic survey.

Optimism among those business owners is up 12 percentage points, with 67% of respondents saying they felt good about the small business economy in the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard.

Hiring is up as well, having increased 3.4% as of the beginning of 2010.

The results represent a small part of SurePayroll's findings. The full report will be released on Monday, May 3.