Workforce still remains a huge hurdle for Small Business in North Dakota
NFIB applauds Gov. Doug Burgum for his State of the State speech today, which addressed key small business priorities in 2020. The Governor mentioned a major concern for North Dakota small business owners: finding qualified workers. NFIB applauds the Governor for his efforts to address North Dakota’s ongoing workforce shortage.
Alison Ritter, NFIB’s state director in North Dakota, who heads up more than 2,000 small business owners, thanked the Governor for his continued investment in small business with his Main Street initiative.
“North Dakota has a strong economy, thanks to the thousands of job creating, small business owners across the state. People want to start and grow their businesses in North Dakota because of our competitive tax structure. Thanks to the efforts of Gov. Burgum and our legislature, North Dakota is still well positioned to be a small business leader. I look forward to working with them both to make sure our small business owners can also continue growing. In order to do that, we need to ensure North Dakota is producing more skilled workers,” said Ritter.
Ritter agrees with Gov. Burgum in that North Dakota has boundless opportunities. North Dakota has seen a 13% increase in population growth over the past 10 years. However, despite that growth, the state is still facing a workforce shortage. Right now, there are 30,000 job opening across the state. Record levels of small business owners have at least one job opening they are not able to fill. Most people who want to work already have a job, leaving few recruitment options available for small business owners. In NFIB’s most recent Small Business Economic Trends survey, finding qualified workers remained the top issue for small business owners, with 23% reporting it as their number one problem. Another 53% reported hiring or trying to hire, but 94% of those owners reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
“As the Governor said this morning, North Dakota is indeed in fantastic shape. Our state has a strong economy with revenues coming in ahead of projections, but we need to find ways to fill jobs and build our skilled workforce. The number one inhibitor to growing North Dakota’s economy is the lack of available workforce. NFIB is thankful that the governor is committed to growing our state’s workforce and getting small business owners the employees they need to keep North Dakota’s economy on track,” said Ritter.
