It’s a Struggle: Record-high number of U.S. small businesses can’t fill job openings

From Reuters

Nearly half of U.S. small business owners reported unfilled job openings in May, marking the fourth consecutive month of record-high readings as finding qualified applicants remains a lingering challenge, a trade group said.

The National Federation of Independent Business said in its monthly jobs report that 48% of small business owners reported unfilled job openings in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from 44% in April. May’s reading is 26 points higher than the 48-year average of 22%.

Furthermore, the report showed that 93% of owners looking to hire reported few or no “qualified” applications for the positions they were trying to fill last month.

Forty percent of small businesses surveyed currently have job openings for skilled workers and 27 percent have openings for unskilled labor, up 3 points and 7 points, respectively.