While the economy continues to chug along, a new survey has found that small businesses across the country are struggling to fill positions.
The National Federation of Independent Business’ monthly small business optimism index shared that while optimism among small business owners remains higher than average, things turned in the wrong direction in January.
The biggest factor that caused optimism to fall was hiring, as 35% of those surveyed said they had job openings they couldn’t fill last month, and 52% said they were hiring.
While the United States Chamber of Commerce reports that “across all industries, hiring rates have continuously outpaced quit rates,” there is still a labor shortage in several fields.
“When taking a look at the labor shortage across different industries, the education and health services sector, and the professional and business services sector, consistently exhibit the highest number of job openings,” the Chamber of Commerce shared in a recent report.
The report highlights that a healthy unemployment rate sits anywhere from 3% to 5%, and the latest data shows the United States has a 3.9% unemployment rate, with 6.5 million people unemployed.
However, when it comes to those who are hiring, the applicants they are receiving aren’t up to par. According to the NFIB survey, 29% of small business openings were for skilled workers, compared to 10% for unskilled workers.
The survey noted that 90% of small business owners who were trying to hire in January reported having “few or no” qualified applicants.
While experts are sharing that it’s positive to see small businesses wanting to hire, Holly Wade, the executive director of the NFIB Research Center, says that the current trend is not helping.
“It’s been a really tough road over the last number of years to find applicants for those high level of job openings that they continue to have,” she said.
This sentiment was also echoed by the Chamber of Commerce in its report.
“The industries with lower-than-average unemployment rates have fewer experienced candidates to choose from when filling their job openings,” the report said. “This situation leads to heightened competition among businesses in these industries as they vie for the limited pool of available talent.”