Forty-nine percent of business leaders believe business conditions will improve in the next six months while 27 percent of business leaders expect business conditions will worsen, according to a new survey by Cbeyond.

Still, 45 percent of respondents anticipate hiring levels to come in under numbers from 2012. According to 51 percent of respondents, taxes are the largest immediate threat to small- and medium-size businesses. Other threats include government regulations at 41 percent, labor costs at 34 percent and the federal deficit at 32 percent.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents say the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will hurt their bottom lines in 2013, and only 15 percent of respondents believe PPACA will impact their bottom lines positively.

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