Small Business News You Can Use (4/2)

The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell back below 4% this week, staying near historic lows. Since the credit crisis of 2008, everyone has been waiting for the banks to start lending money again. It’s finally happening, but there’s a catch: Businesses are afraid to spend it. Consumer confidence rebounded to its highest level in more than a year in March as optimism about jobs and income overcame higher prices at the gasoline pump, said a survey released on Friday. Unemployment fell in 29 states in February and rose in only eight, the government reported Friday, in another sign of broad improvement in the U.S. labor market.