Small businesses across the U.S. and Louisiana are slightly less optimistic these days about the future. That is according to the recent National Federation of Independent Business survey.
Dawn McVea, state director of the NFIB, says the uncertainty index climbed five points to 74 last month, with it, for one, hard for small businesses to find the right workers to fit the jobs available. She says, “it’s really a challenging time on the labor side of the equation.”
And, then there are the operating struggles related to the higher compensation being offered workers to draw them to a job opening, 42 percent of owners doing so, at the detriment to what consumers may have to shell out for a business’s product. As Shea puts it, businesses are left asking themselves “is it time to increase prices because at some point that has to be passed on to the consumer.”
McVea says the amount of goods available for businesses to sell is also a problem these days. “Inventory is not up at the rate it would normally be, you have folks definitely reporting the supply chain is an issue,” said Shea.
Twelve percent of owners cite labor costs as their top business problem, while labor quality was 28 percent of their problem, both record highs.
