NEW YORK—The latest Optical Business Barometer (OBB) report from Jobson Optical Research, which gauges the attitudes about their business and their business outlook among independent eyecare professionals, shows that the overall optical business rating for October 2015 decreased slightly to 3.76 from a September 2015 rating of 3.89. Additionally, compared to October 2014, the rating is only slightly down from 3.77, and when further compared to October 2013, the rating increased compared to a rating of 3.54.

According to the report, January through October ratings for independents’ attitudes about Overall Optical are up by 2.7 percent over the same period in 2014. The average ratings for January through October 2015 stood at 3.84. That compares to 3.74 in 2014 and 3.68 in 2013. The confidence rating, a measuring of independent eyecare professionals’ outlook for overall optical retail business for the upcoming six months, was down slightly, showing a rating of 3.91 as compared to September’s 3.93. The average rating for January through October 2015 stood at 3.91, the highest of January through October ratings for the past five years.

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 October 2015 monthly scores for eyeglasses was down compared to October 2014 while the monthly scores for exams and contact lenses were both up from the previous year. The October rating for eyeglasses was down slightly from 3.72 in 2014 to 3.70 in 2015 (and further compared to 3.45 in 2013); the rating for exams rose from 3.80 in 2014 to 3.89 in 2015 (and further compared to 3.56 in 2013); and the rating for contact lenses rose from 3.62 in 2014 to 3.66 in 2015 (compared to 3.43 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.