Despite indecision in the U.S. Congress and uneven economic signs, the confidence of new business owners in their prospects rose to 86 percent in the third-quarter 2013 Kauffman/LegalZoom Startup Confidence Index, marking a new high in the study that began in first-quarter 2012.

“This helps illustrate the resilience of the American economy and the way in which new business creation constantly creates a new economic future, even as the surrounding economy appears stuck,” Dane Stangler, director of Research and Policy at the Kaufman Foundation, said in a release. “Business owners are trying to lead us forward.”

Young entrepreneurs were especially optimistic, according to the study, with 95 percent of ages 18-30 and 94 percent of ages 31-40 expressing certainty about near-term profitability.

Although startup owners proved less confident about U.S. economic growth and consumer demand than in the previous survey, 70 percent said they were confident that the economy will get better or remain the same in the coming 12 months.

“Entrepreneurial drive does not always correlate to ups and downs of the economy, as illustrated by so many companies that have famously started in the most difficult of times,” said LegalZoom CEO John Suh in a release. “The younger generation of small business owners is indicating extremely high confidence in their ability to achieve near-term profits while acknowledging weakening consumer demand.”

The third-quarter findings released by the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom, a provider of online legal services for small companies, were based on a September 2013 survey of 1,250 LegalZoom customers from around the country who formed their enterprises in the last six months.