Main Street Monday – 75% of Small Business Owners are Experiencing Higher Supply Costs

December 13, 2021

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Main Street Monday – 75% of Small Business Owners are Experiencing Higher Supply Costs

The House Republican Small Business Committee released a press release on Friday with statistics regarding the state of America’s Main Street. Cited in the press release, the Job Creators Network found that the top five concerns facing small businesses in November were high prices and inflation, consumer spending, general operating costs, supply chain disruptions, and taxes.

Here are the statistics:
• 32% of small businesses with two to nine employees believe the current economy is good or excellent, and 45% of small businesses with twenty or more employees believe the same.
• There were over 432,000 business formation applications in November.
• Consumer spending increased 1.3% in October.
• Consumer sentiment, the measurement of the overall health of the economy determined by consumer opinion, decreased to 71.7% in October.

Inflation
• 75% of small business owners are reporting that they are experiencing higher supply costs.
• 34% of small business owners are saying that inflation is the biggest risk to their business.
• The prices for goods and services increased 0.8% in November, and the producer price index increased by 0.6% in October.
• On a year-over-year basis, the consumer price index is set to rise 6.8%, the fastest rate seen since June 1982.
• Since November 2020, energy prices have risen by 33.3%, and food prices

Labor Statistics
• Small businesses were unable to fill around 11 million jobs by the end of October.
• 6.9 million Americans are potentially able to work but are unemployed.
• In November, there were only 210,000 jobs created while 573,000 jobs were expected to be created.
• There are almost 4 million fewer jobs than there were pre-pandemic (February 2020).

Supply Chain Disruptions
• More than half of small businesses (58%) are experiencing supply chain disruptions.
• 22% of small business owners are citing supply chain disruptions as the biggest risk to their business.

Source:
House Republicans Small Business Committee Press Release