Typically the summer headlines are filled with tips on how to shed those unwanted pounds, but this summer the shedding of U.S. jobs has been the dominant headline. The latest economic gauges indicate the nation’s economic situation is gloomy, but despite a less-than-sunny outlook many small-business owners are still optimistic about their operations.

Employment in the U.S. took a hit for the sixth consecutive month shedding nearly 62,000 jobs according to the monthly report released by the Bureau of Labor & Statistics (BLS). Compounding the bad news was the revised job loss numbers for April and May, which were much deeper than initially estimated. Still, the news could have been worse. The unemployment rate remained unchanged after shooting up from 5 percent in April to 5.5 percent in May, the biggest one-month jump since 1986.

Not surprisingly, some of the steepest job losses were in the troubled housing sector, which has taken a beating due to falling home values and foreclosures. The construction sector, depressed by the collapse of the housing market, lost an additional 43,000 jobs in June. An additional 33,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector. But there were also signs of weakness in other areas, including retail trade and financial services, which have been slowly but steadily decreasing the size of their payrolls.

Government jobs were the silver lining, accounting for 29,000 new positions, and hiring in the health care and hospitality sectors continued to grow as well. Unfortunately those gains were outpaced by the losses in other parts of the economy.

As the labor market continues to deteriorate, the size of paychecks continue to decline just as gasoline and food prices surge. The value of real estate continues to erode the wealth and credit of many small-business owners, causing an all time low in economic confidence according to Discover Financial Services' monthly Small Business Watch.

The survey, which began nearly two years ago, reported that small-business owners' economic confidence dropped to 71.8 percent in June from 81.8 percent last month. Of the 1,000 small-business owners surveyed, 80 percent thought economic conditions in the U.S. were getting worse, 10 percent planned to lay off employees in the next few months, and 75 percent planned to decrease spending or hold it steady.

Even with such a dismal outlook, 59 percent of small-business owners would turn down a job working for someone else, even if offered more money than they currently make. The survey also found that nearly half of small-business owners, 46 percent, originally financed their small business with personal savings. The numbers clearly indicate that small-business owners are feeling the credit crunch, which prohibits them from expanding their operations and payrolls -- thus hindering small businesses ability to help the US economy recover.

NSBA believes that the only way the U.S. economy can bounce back is through the fostering of America’s traditional engine of economic growth – small business. Having created more than 93.5 percent of all new net jobs over the last 20 years it is crucial that entrepreneurs have access to the tools and capital they need to continue to grow their business and help strengthen the economy.