JEFFERSON CITY — According to NFIB’s monthly jobs report, 51 percent of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in January. Small employers have plans to fill open positions, with a net 17 percent (seasonally adjusted) planning to create new jobs in the next three months.
“Today’s report is good news for small business owners,” said Brad Jones, NFIB State Director in Missouri of the Feb. 4 announcement. It shows that most of our small business owners here in Missouri are on their way back from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reports that nearly 20 percent of our small business owners are planning on hiring more employees here in Missouri. That’s great news. The only downside is that our small business owners are having a hard time finding qualified workers to fill those jobs.”
Small businesses increased employment in January by 0.36 workers per firm on average over the past few months, up from 0.30 in December, a very strong two-month performance.
Seasonally adjusted, 33 percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, up one point from December. Twenty-eight percent of owners have openings for skilled workers and 12 percebt have openings for unskilled labor.
Finding qualified labor remains a problem for small business owners. Ninety percent of those hiring or trying to hire reported few or no “qualified” applicants for the positions they were trying to fill in January, down two points from December. Twenty-six percent of owners reported few qualified applicants for their open positions and 20 percent reported none.
A net 25 percent (seasonally adjusted) of owners reported raising compensation and a net 17 percent plan to do so in the coming months. Seven percent of owners cited labor costs as their top business problem, unchanged from December.
In the construction sector, 44 percent of the job openings are for skilled workers, up three points. Fifty-six percent of construction firms reported few or no qualified applicants and 32 percent cited the shortage of qualified labor as their top business problem.
(For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since their founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. Find more information on NFIB on their website at nfib.com).