Land of confusion: election and health care reform jitters linger

The air of pre-presidential election uncertainty many Gulf Coast business leaders speak of is duplicated nationwide, according to the Summer 2012 Sage Small Business Sentiment survey.

For starters, nearly half the survey respondents, 46%, say they have put off business decisions until after the election. Three-fourths of those respondents say one of those delayed decisions involves new hires.

Sage North America is a unit of the Sage Group plc, a London-based business management and software firm. It conducted the survey of 300 U.S. small business owners last month.