Main Street Monday- 46% of Small Businesses are Unable to Find Workers

July 12, 2021
Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Main Street Monday- 46% of Small Businesses are Unable to Find Workers

“In June, we saw a record high percent of owners raising compensation to help attract needed employees and job creation plans also remain at record highs. Owners are doing everything they can to get back to a full, productive staff,” says NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg in the June 2021 Jobs Report.

Here are the June statistics:
• 46% of small business owners reported job openings that they could not fill in the current period. This is above the 48-year historical average of 22% but down two percentage points from May.
• A net 39% of small business owners raised compensation (up five percentage points), and 26% of owners plan on raising compensation in the next three months (up four percentage points since May).
• 63% of owners reported hiring or trying to hire, up two percentage points since May.
• 28% of owners plan on creating new jobs in the next three months.
• 56% of owners lack qualified applicants for the jobs they were trying to fill. 32% report few qualified applicants while 24% report no qualified candidates.
• Total employment is about 8 million below the 2020 peak.
• 44% of owners have openings for skilled workers and 22% have openings for unskilled labor (up five percentage points since May).
• In the construction industry, 60% of job openings are for skilled workers (up nine percentage points since May) but 60% of construction firms reported few or no qualified applicants (down six percentage points).
• 26% of small business owners say that labor quality is their top business concern.
• Labor costs are the top business concern for 8% of owners.

“In the busy summer season, many firms haven’t been able to hire enough workers to efficiently run their businesses, which has restricted sales and output.”

Source:
NFIB June Jobs Report