Washington DC (April 5, 2024) – Holly Wade, Executive Director, NFIB Research Center I participated Bloomberg: Close We will discuss the labor market and employment trends for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Wade shares these insights: N.F.I.B. The March jobs report highlights the state of the Main Street labor market and the outlook for small business employment and compensation in the coming months.
Read Wade's full interview here. This segment starts at the 24:15 minute mark: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-04-04/bloomberg-markets-the-close-04-04-2024-video
“On the small business side, this has been kind of a difficult road for a lot of small business owners, depending on the industry they are in.Certainly now labor pressures have eased a little bit from their peak in 2022. However, what we still find is…about 18% say the most important issue is the quality of the workforce, and a further 10% say the cost of labor. Over the years, the main concerns in running a business have been labor-related.
“Over the past four months, we've seen a decline in the number of companies saying they plan to hire in the next quarter. doing [go]to [what they were in] 2016. So far from where we were [during the pandemic]. However, although these unfilled job openings have passed their peak, they are still at a very high level.
“When we ask our members whether their compensation has increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last quarter compared to the previous quarter, it remains high. [owners are] Report that you are increasing your compensation or plan to increase your compensation within the next 3 months. So those levels are still historically high. ”