Main Street Monday – Half of All Small Businesses Report Unfilled Job Positions

July 11, 2022

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Main Street Monday – Half of All Small Businesses Report Unfilled Job Positions

“The labor force participation rate has been slowly rising this year, with more people taking jobs,” says NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “However, the labor shortage continues to be a difficult problem for small businesses. A few more good months of increased employment might get total employment back to pre-pandemic levels.”

The NFIB June 2022 Jobs Report shows that half of all small business owners reported job openings that they could not fill. During the Coleman Report Live! show, 78% of our viewers voted “Yes” when responding to the question, “Do you have positions at your lending institution that are unfilled?”

These are the statistics:
• 42% of small businesses have openings for skilled workers, and 22% of small businesses have openings for unskilled labor.
• The industries with the highest number of job openings are Construction (62%), Manufacturing (60%), and Services (56%).
• The industries that least reported job openings are Wholesale (41%), Professional Services (36%), and Agriculture (29%).
• Almost two-thirds of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in June.
• 60% of owners reported few to no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
• 19% of owners are planning to create new jobs in the next three months, down 7 points from the May Jobs Report.
• Nearly half (48%) of owners reported raising compensation, and a net 28% are planning to raise compensation during the next three months.
• About a quarter of small businesses (23%) reported that labor quality was their top business problem.
• 8% of the small business owners surveyed stated that labor costs were their top business problem.

“The number of unfilled job openings far exceeds the 48-year historical average of 23 percent. Nationwide, the number of job openings continues to exceed the number of unemployed workers (those looking for a job), producing a tight labor market and pressure on wage levels,” reads the report.

Source:
NFIB June Jobs Report