When a jobs engine stalls

The stock market turmoil of the past few weeks, while unsettling, has validated their conservative approach to building a business.

“It’s not going so bad. It’s not going so great, either,’’ Le Garrec said recently. “Before, [customers] were spending $50 to $60 on a bottle of wine, and now they spend $25 to $30, and they don’t drink as much.’’

Other small businesses also have remained in survival mode, and plan to stay there. That could make an already slow economic comeback even more sluggish, economists say.

Small companies account for more than 50 percent of all private sector employment, and have traditionally led economic rebounds by adding jobs. That’s not happening this time.

Owners have become accustomed to doing more with less and are getting by with fewer employees.

Jeff Stibel, chief executive of Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp. in Los Angeles, which helps businesses build credit, said many small companies that endured the recession are still struggling. Federal stimulus money that was supposed to filter down to them never really arrived, he said.

“What small businesses were left with was they had to be scrappy, they had to be lean,’’ Stibel said.

And there is nothing in the economic projections that is likely to change that thinking, said Chris G. Christopher Jr., a senior economist with the Lexington forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. In fact, he said, small-business owners’ confidence has been spiraling downward for months - even before the dramatic market swings of late.

The percentage of small-business owners feeling optimistic about the economy fell from 67 percent in a June survey, to 47 percent in July, according to the online payroll service SurePayroll.

“It’s just not looking good,’’ Christopher said. “Small business is generally the driver that pushes down the unemployment rate.’’