As a CPA for small businesses, these folks never last. The ones that build businesses that end up employing others never think for a minute that things are bad.
Bingo! With the tax cuts, especially for small businesses and Sub-chapter S's that GWB got passed in 2003, I firmly believe that SB formation and SB hiring is picking up. There are also billions of new Federal $ being appropriated for DoD and DHS that they want spent. In the DC area, where I am, new SB's, mostly started by former employees of the usual suspects (CSC, SAIC, Lockheed Martin, NGIT, etc.) are popping up all the time, just to meet the demand for contractor support, that by law cannot all be awarded to large firms. These will never be counted as "jobs created."
And I would bet that the ones that build the businesses that end up employing others are not the type of businesses being reported in the household survey.
By the way my company was created out of necessity and been growing and profitable now for 14 years. Although I will admit that 2002 was very iffy.