Owners appeared less pessimistic about the outlook for business conditions and real sales growth, but that did not materialize in hiring or increased inventories plans, the NFIB said today.

"Small-business owners are no longer firing, but they are not yet hiring," Kevin Shivers, the NFIB's Pennsylvania director, said prior to the release of the survey. "The trend line shows growing confidence about the economic picture, but (businesses) are still concerned about what is going on in the economy."

Without fiscal discipline or budgetary priorities in Congress, there is no path to fiscal sanity in Washington, NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said.

"U.S. debt is now larger than our (gross domestic product), and headed in the wrong direction," he said. "This does not make for a comforting future, a fact reflected by low consumer and small-business owner optimism."

Seasonally adjusted, 11 percent of owners surveyed said they added an average of three workers over the past few months, while 11 percent reduced employment an average of 2.9 workers per firm. The remaining 78 percent made no net change in employment.

Looking back over the last year, the NFIB's Small-Business Optimism Index suggests that for small-business owners, 2011 was a flat year. The latest survey indicates the economy will continue to crawl along at a slow and weak pace.

Total private sector employment grew by 257,000 in January, with the largest employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing, according to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Professional and business services added 70,000 jobs in January. About half of the increase occurred in employment services, the report said.

Leisure and hospitality increased employment by 44,000. Food services and drinking establishments accounted for most of the gain with 33,000 jobs. Health care employment grew 31,000 over the month.

In the goods-producing sector, manufacturing added 50,000 jobs. Nearly all of the increase occurred in durable goods manufacturing, such as fabricated metal products, machinery, and motor vehicles and parts, the report said.

After a gain of 31,000 jobs in December, the construction sector grew by 21,000 last month.

Government employment changed little for the month, but has lost 276,000 jobs over the past year.