for "nightly business report" i'm hampton pearn. >> the markets got a real boost today from the latest survey by the national federation of independent business. the group's its highest level since last october with a slightly better outlook on hiring and sales. >> here to shed more light on the mood of small business owners is the nfib's chief bill dunkleberg. thanks for joining us. >> nice to see you. >> based on the headline numbers in your survey, i think you would all be relatively pleased with where things are. the highest level as susie said and some of the constituents up as well. your take is notably not that way. why? >> well, 92.1 is basically 1 point above the average level of the index that we've seen since the recovery started back in 2009. so we really haven't gone anywhere. we are really operating a very narrow range and of course going into 2008 the average level of the index was 100 and change. so we're way below the average. if you look at each of those components, there are ten components and you mentioned a few of them. they did improve a lot this time but they're