Part-Time Hiring Reaches All-Time High Among Small Businesses

Small business operators have reached a new record high for part-time hiring, according to the latest Alignable August Small Business Labor Report . Nearly one-third of all small business employers (32%) are now focused on hiring only contractors and part-timers. Meanwhile, permanent, fulltime hiring has dropped to a record low of just 25%.

The hiring trend boils down to cost-savings efforts necessary to combat labor shortages, lack of new revenue streams, and ongoing inflation and recessionary fears.

Here are some of the key findings in the latest report:

- Only 25% of small businesses are hiring fulltime, permanent workers - a low for 2023 - and down seven percentage points from June.

- The percentage of small businesses implementing hiring freezes and/or layoffs was 43% in July (down four percentage points from June). That's also a record low for 2023.

- Only 33% of small businesses are making as much or more monthly in 2023 as they did this time last year. That means two-thirds of owners are performing worse than they did even in 2022.

- 40% of small business owners say interest rate hikes are taking a toll on their businesses. Many commented that the U.S. policy of raising rates to combat inflation is backfiring among small businesses.

- 55% of small business owners were faced with rent spikes in July, with 15% paying bills that are more than 20% higher than they were just six months ago.

- Half of all small business operators (50%) fear a recession if the economic climate doesn't improve soon; 30% claim it's already here.

The results are from a poll of 4,619 randomly selected small business owners surveyed from July 2 to July 31, along with historic poll results from more than 80,000 small business owners over the past 18 months.