Business owners nationally are increasingly optimistic about their potential for growth in the near future, according to two recently released small business surveys.

“The survey confirms what we’re already seeing. It’s not gangbusters, but it’s steady,” said James Bryan, executive vice president and regional executive for First Citizens Bank in Wilmington, speaking about business growth in the market.

First Citizens Bank published in mid-October the results of its second annual Small Business Forecast survey, uncovering what it terms “a strong entrepreneurial spirit and optimism toward economic conditions” among U.S. small business owners.

“Overall, small business owners are feeling steady and consistent with their business and future success even when considering recent local and global events. Many believe the upcoming year will be their most successful yet,” the bank’s news release stated.

Locally, Chops Deli owners Brad Corpening and Chris Graham are good examples of business optimism. With three locations already in operation, the restaurateurs are close to opening a fourth – a diner in the Castle Hayne area – and will have a fifth eatery in the new The Pointe at Barclays development “within six months,” according to Corpening.

"A lot of our expansion has been opportunity driven,” he said. “Honestly, if we’re not trying to grow, we really are falling behind.”

Chops Deli, while not surveyed by First Citizens, is the kind of business the bank contacted. The initiative sampled 250 small business owners in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and California – the states in which it operates – through an online survey in May. To qualify for the survey, the owners had to employ fewer than 500 people. Among those surveyed, 82 percent reported annual revenue less than $1 million.

In this year’s survey compared to last year’s, the percentage of North Carolina small business owners who considered their businesses to be successful or even very successful increased by 11 percent, the release stated.

According to those surveyed in the four states, 71 percent of respondents reported optimism about future economic conditions in the next three years, a 7 percent increase from 2015, according to the release. Of the states surveyed, South Carolina reported the most significant increase in optimism about the economy, with an 18 percent increase from 2015.

That upbeat mood is reflected in what Bryan hears and sees in the Wilmington market, he said.

“We’ve seen improvement in the southeast area of the region and in the entire eastern part of North Carolina,” he said. “We’ve had uptick in activity in terms of loan demand.”

Bryan said his anecdotal evidence also supports the trend indicated by the survey. He is seeing fewer For Lease and For Sale signs on commercial buildings in small business developments like Wilmington’s Dutch Square.

“Just three years ago, it seemed that every third building [in Dutch Square] was for sale or for lease,” he said. “Our clients are expanding, buying equipment, adding space across our eastern [North Carolina] footprint. Agribusinesses are buying farmland, buying equipment.”

PNC economist Mekael Teshome had a similar prediction for the area and for the state in general when he spoke last month at PNC’s third annual economic forecast event in Wilmington.

Despite the sluggish rate of expansion nationwide following the 2008 downturn, he pointed to the consistent – although modest – growth of American GDP in the face of stagnation elsewhere in the world.

Growth in the Wilmington market will strengthen in 2017, he said, with more people moving to the area to boost retail and hospitality sales, and with payroll numbers indicating a 1.5 percent growth in employment this year, increasing to more than 2.2 percent in 2017.

Teshome also forecast that unemployment would decrease to 4.6 percent in early 2017, which would be within the 4-5 percent unemployment rate that is officially considered full employment by the federal government.

To support his forecast, Teshome cited U.S. economic data as well as information obtained from PNC’s late summer survey of small- to midsize business owners, 151 of them in North Carolina. Respondents in this state and across the U.S., he said, are “becoming increasingly optimistic.”

The four pillars he cited as supporting continued growth are consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy; a recovering housing market; a “relatively healthy” financial system; and signs that young adults are finally starting to get on their feet financially, which means they are moving out of their parents’ homes and into their own lodging.

“They may initially move into apartments rather than buying homes, but they need to buy stuff to fill that apartment,” Teshome said.

Low inflation pressures and low borrowing costs are also supporting steady growth, the economist added. Headwinds keeping growth modest, according to Teshome, include weak growth in investment and productivity, reduced U.S. exports resulting from a strong dollar and the drop in energy prices.

As European, East Asian, South American, Mexican and Canadian economies struggle, the U.S. “will be the major economic engine” in the world this year and next, Teshome said. He predicted the Federal Reserve will hike rates a quarter-percent hike in December, with similar small increases two or three times in 2017.