Small businesses are having increasing difficulty finding job candidates with the skills they need, a new survey found.
The Chamber of Commerce and MetLife survey reported that 49% of small businesses now say they are struggling to find qualified workers, a number that is up sharply from June, when 34% said the same. Additionally, 46% said it is either somewhat hard or very hard to find candidates with the right amount of experience, up from 35% in June.
Small businesses also reported double-digit increases when asked about difficulty finding enough talent to fill open positions and their ability to compete for candidates with larger businesses in their area.
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A majority of small businesses also support vaccine mandates, according to the survey.
Sixty-four percent of the companies surveyed said they support businesses in their area requiring staff to be vaccinated, and the exact same percent said the same about the federal mandate, which will require all businesses with more than 100 employees to have their workers vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
More than half (51%) of the small businesses polled in September said they are already or are likely to require that customers or clients provide proof of vaccination for entry or service. That is a 13-point jump from the June survey.
Tom Sullivan, vice president of small-business policy at the Chamber of Commerce, said the survey showed that companies are eager to hire and cater to customers.
“However, the worker shortage crisis threatens the economic recovery of Main Streets across the country, and many small-business owners have simply given up on finding new staff,” Sullivan said. “Congress needs to focus on making it easier for small businesses to hire the people they need to grow, compete, and thrive.”
The survey comes amid what many economists are characterizing as a nationwide labor shortage.
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About 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August, a figure that is elevated from 4 million in July. The number of people quitting is the highest since the United States began keeping records of the statistic about 20 years ago and is equivalent to about 3% of the country’s workforce. Almost 20 million people have quit since April.
The September jobs report was far worse than what economists had expected. The economy fell flat of expectations and added just 194,000 new jobs, fewer than the 473,000 jobs that were anticipated. The unemployment rate, at 4.8%, is low by historical standards, but it’s still high relative to before the pandemic struck.
