New survey shows fewer small-business owners plan to expand workforce

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the latest data shows there are 9.9 million job openings in the U.S. and 5.8 million unemployed workers. Noting this gap, some small business owners say there are jobs —  the problem is recruiting workers.

Small businesses, which hire more employees than any other sector of the economy, they’re really struggling to meet demand,” said Dr. Christopher Kayes, a professor of management at George Washington University.

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From meeting employee demands to higher interest rates, Kayes says, there are several challenges small businesses are facing right now. Now, that all appears to be impacting goals for expansion.

Citing a recent survey conducted for The Wall Street Journal, the platform says the number of small-business owners with plans of workforce expansion over the next year was below 50% for the second month in a row in May, reaching the lowest level since June 2020.

President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont and Western North Carolina Tom Bartholomy says he’s trying to keep up with requests from potential hires.

The two new hires we brought on, in both situations they came back and said, ‘hey look I just got another offer as well. Is there any way you can match what this other company is doing?’” Bartholomy said. 

He says employees can be more discerning about where they work, which is why some small business owners may be hesitant to expand for economic reasons. 

“Especially contractors, HVAC and so forth,” Bartholomy said. “They’re having difficulty hiring people, but they’re telling us that’s ok we’re gonna try to make do  because they’re just afraid that if they do go out and hire a lot more people and then the economy turns into a recession, they’re gonna have to let all those people go.”

Kayes points out that others are reluctant to let employees go out of fear they won’t be able to fill the spots.

With wages increasing, it becomes more expensive to hire qualified and highly skilled employees, so we’re kind of struggling at the small business level to kind of keep up with the labor market as well,” he said. 

Kayes further says the small businesses that’ll thrive in this economy are the ones that offer flexible schedules like a four-day week or work-from-home options and those that match wages employees are demanding.

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