What it means: NFIB’s jobs report for April showed that labor shortages and finding qualified workers continues to constrain small business job growth. Thirty-four percent (seasonally adjusted) of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill in April.

Our take: “Small business owners remained open to hire and grow their workforce in April. While the percent of open positions decreased a bit, Main Street firms are still struggling to find qualified applicants for their plentiful open positions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg.

NFIB’s April jobs report found that small business owners with job openings they could not fill was down six points from March, but historically still elevated. Small business owners who reported hiring or trying to hire increased three points from March.

Other key findings include:

• Thirty-four percent (seasonally adjusted) of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill.
• Fifty-six percent of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in April.
• Forty-seven percent of owners reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
• Twenty-eight percent of owners reported few qualified applicants for their open positions and 19% reported none.
• Twenty-nine percent have openings for skilled workers (down four points) and 13% have openings for unskilled labor (unchanged for the third consecutive month).
• Job openings were the highest in the construction, transportation, and manufacturing sectors. Job openings in the wholesale industry rose 16 points from the prior month to 36%.

More information can be found through the NFIB Research Center. The monthly Small Business Economic Trends report was released May 13.