Report Finds More Than Half Of Small Business Owners Can't Find Qualified Workers

More than half (51%) of small business owners continue to struggle to find qualified employees, says NFIB’s monthly jobs report for September. That’s up a point from the August report. Incredibly, the number of unfilled job openings continues to exceed the 48-year historical average of 22%.

“More and more small business owners are struggling to find workers for their open positions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “For most small employers, labor costs are the largest operating outlay and owners will be compelled to pass those costs on to their customers by raising prices.”

Small business owners say they have had to raise compensation (42%) or plan to raise it in the next three months (30%). Both those numbers are up since the August report.

Here are some other findings from the latest report:

-Two-thirds (67%) of small business operators said they hired or tried to hire in September, up one point from August

-Small business owners’ plans to fill open positions remain at record high levels, with a seasonally adjusted net 26% planning to create new jobs in the next three months

-Ninety-two percent of those employers hiring or trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill. Thirty-four percent of owners reported few qualified applicants for their open positions and 28% reported none

-Twelve percent of owners cited labor costs as their top business problem, up two points and a 48-year record high. Twenty-eight percent said that labor quality was their top business problem, unchanged from August and a record high reading