November 15, 2023
Labor quality and inflation remain top concerns as small businesses continue seeing unfilled jobs at 43%.
NFIB's Small Business Economic Trends Survey Celebrates 50 Years, Jobs Report Shows Continuing Tight Labor Market
- Twenty-two percent of owners reported inflation as their single most important problem, down one point from last month.
- Owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months remained unchanged from September at a net negative 43% (seasonally adjusted).
- A net negative 17% of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months, down nine points from September and the lowest reading since July 2020.
- Forty-three percent (seasonally adjusted) of owners reported job openings that were hard to fill, unchanged from September.
- Seasonally adjusted, a net 24% plan to raise compensation in the next three months, up one point from September.
- The frequency of reports of positive profit trends was a net negative 32%, down eight points from September.
- The net percentage of owners who expect real sales to be higher increased three points from September to a net negative 10%.
- NFIB’s monthly jobs report found that a seasonally adjusted net 17% of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months. In total, 61% of owners reported hiring or trying to hire in October, and of those, 90% reported few or no qualified applicants for vacant positions. Thirty-seven percent of owners have openings for skilled workers and 18% have openings for unskilled labor.
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