July has brought with it the results from two surveys of small business owners that have drawn the same observations: Inflation and finding qualified employees are the top two difficulties dogging Main Street enterprises.

In a July 8 presentation before the Alaska Chamber, Jon Bittner, executive director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center (more about SBDCs below), discussed the findings in the 7th edition of the Alaska SBDC Annual Small Business Survey.

In a bar graph on Page 4 of the survey, 17% of Alaska small businesses ranked inflation their No. 1 problem at the moment, making it first among the 17 issues measured for, and 12% listed finding qualified employees (third among the 17 issues) as their top problem.

Two days later, NFIB issued its latest Small Business Economic Trends report, something it has been doing for the last four decades, showing inflation the top worry of 21% of small business owners surveyed. In NFIB’s latest Jobs Report, data from which is included in the 10 components making up the SBET, a seasonally adjusted 37% of all small business owners reported jobs openings they could not fill in their current period.

“NFIB research data are national snapshots, providing an aerial view of the small business economy,” said Thor Stacey, NFIB’s Alaska state director. “The AKSBDC survey is an on-the-ground look specific to the state. Both provide policymakers with the clearest outlooks on the most important segment of all economies – small businesses – from which to make the best-informed decisions.”

About the Small Business Development Center

“SBDCs are cooperative efforts involving the Small Business Administration (SBA), a college or university, and often other private or public partners,” according to this two-page description of them from the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. “There are more than 1,000 SBDCs, operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and many U.S. territories. The centers offer free counseling and training for small businesses on topics such as business planning, financial management, marketing, and access to capital.”

About NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends Report

“The SBET’s primary value is anticipating short-run fluctuations in economic activity. An additional value of the SBET is its measurement of small business activities and concerns over time. The benefit of a longitudinal data set offers an invaluable perspective on how policies and business cycles impact small businesses over time. The SBET is one of the few archival data sets on small businesses, particularly when research questions address business operations rather than opinions. Today, it’s the largest, longest-running data set on small business economic conditions available.” – From a one-page History of the SBET.