FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tony Gagliardi, Colorado State Director, tony.gagliardi@nfib.org,
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

DENVER, March 31, 2022—From Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) on today’s release of NFIB’s monthly Jobs Report. The report is a national snapshot not broken down by state.

“It appears small business owners are faced with a double-edged sword. They either cannot find employees for open positions and when they do land a new worker, they quickly find out that new employee is not qualified. This dilemma raises the question: Is Colorado doing enough to provide the necessary skills training for which employers are searching?”

Highlights from Today’s Jobs Report

• Small businesses reporting labor costs as the top business problem are at 48-year record high levels.
  
  
  
• A net 49% (seasonally adjusted) of owners reported raising compensation, up four points from February. A net 28% plan to raise compensation in the next three months, up two points from February.
  
  
  
• Seasonally adjusted, 47% of all small business owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down one point from February. Thirty-nine percent of owners have openings for skilled workers and 23% have openings for unskilled workers.
  
  
  
• Sixty-two percent of construction firms reported few or no qualified applicants, one of the tightest domestic labor markets in recent history.

From NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg

“The labor shortage has not eased on Main Street as the number of job openings exceeds the number of unemployed workers. Owners have continued to increase their compensation in March to attract the right employees for their open positions, however, these rising labor costs will be passed on to their consumers through higher selling prices.”

Keep up with the latest Colorado small-business news at www.nfib.com/colorado or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_CO or on Facebook @NFIB.CO

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For 78 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.

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