This past week the United States Census Bureau published the Small Business Pulse Survey with data collected from April 4th through 10th.  Analysis demonstrated continuing problems attributed to previous disruption of the supply chain as reflected in increased costs for small businesses and presumably other sectors including egg production.  The Pulse Survey documented:-

• 40 percent of U.S. small businesses experienced a large increase in prices they pay for goods and services compared to six months ago.  This response was unchanged from the previous survey at the end of March.
• 26 percent of U.S. wholesale small businesses anticipate improvements in their logistics and distribution in the coming six months.  This is an improvement over the previous survey in which 22 percent anticipated improvements
• 69 percent of U.S. manufacturing small businesses experienced supply delays and improvement over the previous survey with a response of 73 percent
• 60 percent of U.S. food service small businesses experienced difficulties in recruiting employees, almost unchanged from 58 percent at the end of March. 
• 31 percent of U.S. small businesses experienced an increase in demand for goods or services compared to six months ago

Recent Pulse Surveys of both businesses and households provide a valuable insight into trends in the U.S. economy denoting either an improvement or deterioration in key parameters.  Based on the past two Pulse Surveys, it appears that the economy is at a plateau with anticipation of improvement as COVID restrictions are relaxed. An unfortunate aspect that has emerged in the past two weeks relates to shutdowns in major cities in China in a futile attempt to control the Omicron strain of COVID. This has curtailed port operations in many cities.  Ocean freight will experience a new period of disruption further stressing supply chains that showed signs of recovery.