Poll: 21 Percent of Small Business Owners Will Cut Their Workforce in 2013

A recent poll from the Wells Fargo/Gallup quarterly survey shows that U.S. small business owners are growing "increasingly pessimistic" as the new year approaches, with 21 percent expecting to decrease their workforces in the next 12 months to a level not seen since Aug. 2003, CNSNews.com reports. Wells Fargo small business head Marc Bernstein attributed the potential decline in part to the possibility of going over the "fiscal cliff," or the automatic tax hikes and defense cuts scheduled to occur if Congress and the White House do not reach a budget deal by the end of this month. "Business owners who navigated through the Great Recession now face more uncharted territory created by ongoing uncertainty in Washington," he said.