A new survey of small business owners from Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Voices revealed that, of those who have applied for a small business loan in the past three months, 61 percent have found it difficult to access affordable capital. Sixty percent said rising interest rates are impacting their ability to service existing debt.

THE survey also found that 65 percent of small business owners say their business would be negatively impacted if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, and 90 percent believe it’s important for the federal government not to default on its debt. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said Congress should enact spending cuts along with raising the debt ceiling.

ACCORDING to WalletHub, student loans make up the second highest form of household debt after mortgages, totaling $1.63 trillion — about $37,600 per borrower. In Manchester, the median student debt is $20,724, with earnings of bachelor-degree holders averaging $56,173. Nashua’s median student debt amount is slightly higher, at $23, 521, with average earnings of $63,136. Overall, New Hampshire ranks 48th in the nation for its debt-to-earnings ratio.

IN a recent survey, Robert Half found that almost three-quarters (74 percent) of employees said they were working more than 40 hours per week, with more than onethird of professionals (35 percent) revealing they are uneasy about expressing their feelings of burnout with their manager. About one quarter of 1,000 workers shared they had taken time off due to stress in the past two years.

FIFTY-EIGHT percent of respondents to a Pew Research Center survey believe that life is worse today than it was 50 years ago. Additionally, in 2050, 60 percent believe the U.S. economy will be weaker, 71 percent think the country will be less important in the world, 77 percent say political divisions will be wider, and 81 percent believe there will be a larger gap between the rich and the poor.