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America’s small businesses are still suffering through a worker shortage, so it’s not surprising that wages continue to rise at small firms. This is good news for workers, but the potential bad news is that business owners continue to scale back their plans for future hiring. That’s according to the latest monthly survey from the National Federation of Independent Business, due out later today. NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg reports that the organization’s March survey of small business owners finds that “40 percent (seasonally adjusted) of all owners reported
job openings they could not fill in the current period, up 2 points from February. Thirty-three percent have openings for skilled workers (up 2 points) and 13 percent have openings for unskilled labor (unchanged).” Job openings are especially plentiful in construction and transportation, with more than half of such firms reporting openings, and also in manufacturing, where 47% of firms report unfilled positions. Illustrating the difficulty of finding workers, Mr. Dunkelberg notes: More firms reduced their employment levels than increased them (14.4 percent reduced while 9.6 percent increased). The forecast for adding employees in the future is also looking more dim. The NFIB economist notes: A seasonally adjusted net 12 percent of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down 3 points from February. The last time hiring plans were this low was April 2024. Job creation plans are in weak territory compared to recent history.
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