FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anthony Smith, NFIB Oregon State Director,  anthony.smith@nfib.org
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

SALEM, Ore., Feb. 6, 2025—Despite a long-awaited improvement in small business optimism across the nation, today’s release of NFIB’s latest monthly Jobs Report shows unfilled job openings continuing to plague Main Street enterprises.

“If Oregon lawmakers want to help small business owners fill their open positions, the last thing they should do is make it more expensive to employ people in the first place,” said Anthony Smith, state director for NFIB Oregon, “This is exactly what Senate Bill 916 would do by imperiling Oregon’s currently well-run unemployment insurance system by extending benefits to people already with jobs who choose to go out on strike.”

Voting the measure down would send a powerful message that Oregon’s unemployment insurance system is off limits to those who want to use it for purposes other than for those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, according to Smith. “Our state’s UI system works as intended. Employers pay taxes into the trust fund from which benefits are paid to those who have lost their jobs but are actively looking for work. It was meant for no one else, which is why it is solvent.”

NFIB’s January jobs report found that 35% (seasonally adjusted) of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill in January, unchanged from December. The Jobs Report is a national snapshot of NFIB-member, small-business owners not broken down by state. The typical NFIB member employs 10 people and reports gross sales of about $500,000 a year. On Tuesday, February 11, NFIB will release its latest Small Business Optimism Index.

From NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg

“Small business owners are certainly feeling hopeful about the direction of the economy. However, employment remains a top concern as Main Street owners continue to face challenges in finding qualified employees to fill their open positions.”

Highlights from the Latest NFIB Jobs Report

• Overall, 52% of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in January, down three points from December.
• Forty-seven percent (90% of those hiring or trying to hire) of owners reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
• Twenty-nine percent have openings for skilled workers (unchanged) and 10% have openings for unskilled labor (down three points).
• A seasonally adjusted net 18% of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down one point from December.
• The percent of small business owners reporting labor quality as their top operating problem fell one point from December to 18%. Labor costs reported as the single most important problem for business owners fell two points from December to 9%, only four points below the highest reading of 13% reached in December 2021.
• Seasonally adjusted, a net 33% of small business owners reported raising compensation in January, up four points from December’s lowest reading since March 2021. A net 20% (seasonally adjusted) plan to raise compensation in the next three months, down four points December.

Click here to view the entire NFIB Jobs Report.

Keep up with the latest Oregon small-business news at www.nfib.com or on Twitter at @NFIB_OR

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For 80 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.

National Federation of Independent Business Oregon
1149 Court Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-364-4450
www.nfib.com/oregon
Twitter: NFIB_OR