Half of US Small Businesses Had Job Openings in June, NFIB Says
2022.07.07 21:26
Budrigannews – Customers at the Sandwich Board in Alameda, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Industry associations and business owners say serial plaintiffs filing dozens or hundreds of cases are increasingly using the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act to extract tens of thousands of dollars in settlements — and not to promote access as the landmark civil-rights law intended.
Half of US small-business owners said they had open positions they could not fill in June, down slightly from a record-high, and nearly as many reported raising compensation, indicating persistent hiring challenges and a still-tight labor market.
Fifty percent of firms had vacancies, down one percentage point from May, according to data out Thursday from the National Federation of Independent Business. A near-record 48% of small-business owners said they raised compensation, a slight softening from the prior month, but 28% say they intend to increase pay in the coming three months — a pickup from May.
“The labor force participation rate has been slowly rising this year, with more people taking jobs,” Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist said in a statement. “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.”
Even so, there were some signs of softening. A net 19% of small business owners said they plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down 7 percentage points from May.