NEW YORK—The latest Optical Business Barometer (OBB) report from Jobson Research, which gauges the attitudes about their business and their business outlook among independent eyecare professionals, shows that the overall optical business rating for April 2015 decreased slightly to 3.83 from a March 2015 rating of 3.84. However, as compared to the April 2014 rating of 3.70, the April 2015 rating has increased, and when further compared to April 2013, the rating also increased from the rating of 3.65.

According to the report, in all previous annual periods April has declined significantly from the immediately preceding month of March. April 2015, however, is almost flat with March demonstrating a new periodic pattern that indicates a strong mid-year 2015 may be at hand.

Between March 2015 and April 2015, the confidence rating, a measuring of independent eyecare professionals’ outlook for overall optical retail business for the upcoming six months, was down only slightly, showing a rating of 3.87 as compared to March’s 3.89 rating. The April 2015 rating of 3.87 compares to 3.81 in 2014 and 3.67 in 2013.

The Optical Business Barometer is designed to gauge the optical business trends of eyecare professionals at independent optical locations and to provide independent optical retailers with a comparative “how's business” benchmark. The Optical Business Barometer is a monthly study of a representative sample of independent optical retailers (single locations and groups of no more than three locations). It is conducted online by Jobson Optical Research and is designed to take the temperature of the independent optical business. The OBB is based on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is very negative, 3 is neutral and 5 is very positive.

Additionally, the April 2015 monthly scores for eyeglasses, exams and contact lenses all showed increases from the previous year. The April rating for eyeglasses rose from 3.67 in 2014 to 3.79 in 2015 (and further compared to 3.63 in 2013); the rating for exams rose from 3.70 in 2014 to 3.89 in 2015 (and further compared to 3.70 in 2013); and the rating for contact lenses rose from 3.55 in 2014 to 3.63 in 2015 (compared to 3.55 in 2013).

For VM’s full report, visit the Research + Stats section on VisionMonday.com.

For more information, visit jobsonresearch.com/obb or contact Jennifer Waller at (212) 274-7164 or jwaller@jobson.com.