{{byline}}
Alignable’s September Hiring Report is out and the results show hiring freezes and layoffs among small businesses are increasing rapidly.
According to the study, 63% of small businesses in the U.S. aren’t hiring because they can’t afford to add workers. That’s an increase of 18 percentage points over July’s rate of 45%. Here other highlights:
-49% of those who've stopped hiring were seeking workers to fill jobs earlier in 2022, but ended their recruiting based on high payroll expenses, recessionary fears, and reduced revenues.
-58% of small business employers are paying at least 50% more in labor costs than they did prior to Covid.
-Layoffs are spiking, too. Now, 10% in the U.S. are cutting staff, up six percentage points from 4% in July.
-The top three states with small business hiring freezes are New York (75% aren’t hiring), Ohio (74%), and Pennsylvania (68%). In all three of these states, 7% of small businesses are cutting staffers.
-Small business layoff rates are highest in Florida (12%) and Illinois (11%).
-Sectors most impacted by hiring freezes and layoffs include real estate (69%), auto industry (67%), healthcare (67%), retail (66%), and finance (61%).
-While many restaurateurs spent most of the past year severely understaffed, now 55% of them say they’re not hiring (up by 17%) and 9% are laying off workers.
-Only 23% of small businesses have fully recovered from the impact of Covid - the worst recovery rate in over a year, down 2% from July, and down 20% from Dec. 2021.
The information in the report is based on a poll of 5,618 small business employers taken between Aug. 13 and Sept. 6.