American small-business owners are rightly proud of their reputation as the nation’s leading job creator. But their ability to create jobs is complicated by the federal tax code burden they face.

Chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business William C. Dunkelberg, issued the following statement on the March job numbers, based on NFIB’s monthly economic survey that will be released on Tuesday, April 10, 2012.

Rising just one tenth of one percent in January, the Small-Business Optimism Index settled at 93.9, a slight increase from the December 2011 reading, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.