WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 12, 2022) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, released a new video today featuring small business owners from across the nation discussing how staffing shortages are impacting their businesses.

Forty-six percent of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, according to NFIB’s monthly jobs report. Owners reporting labor quality as their top business problem remains elevated at 22% and 10% of owners reported labor cost as their single most important problem.

You can view the new video here:

Excerpts include: 

“Staffing shortages are the biggest problem that we’re having right now…we’re trying to increase wages, we’re trying our best in every way, trying to be creative to try to get people working, but at the end of the day we cannot find people. We are desperate. And it’s causing us to shorten our hours, it’s causing stress on the existing employees. We are spending more in our marketing budget for advertising for hiring than we are on anything else at all,” said Tina Miller, a small business owner from Virginia.

“We are turning work away every day…if I could double my stuff and have more truck drivers, we could do twice as much, which would not only help our bottom line but would help lots of other people,” said Laura Lucia, a small business owner from New York.

“Staffing is a huge issue – we could actually have 10 more people in our office today if we could find them. And we can’t find them,” said Eddie Wetherill, a small business owner from North Carolina.