Inflation Cools, But Small Businesses Hiring Struggles Persist
Small business owners received good and bad news this week.
The good news: inflation is finally leveling off. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly inflation reports and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) settled at 0.1%—half of what economists expected and the slowest rise in inflation since March 2021.
In response to this, Fed policy makers are holding interest rates steady, instead of ratcheting them up.
The bad news: small businesses are getting slammed by wage inflation.
Inflation has meant increased cost of living, and so workers are looking for the highest-paying jobs. With 10 million open jobs in the US economy, there are two job openings for every worker. So not only do small businesses have to deal with inflation, but they also have to pay employees a competitive wage.
Even though 41% of small business owners reported raising compensation this last month, they still said hiring was their greatest challenge.
Gallup State of the Workplace Report Shows a Drop in Already Low Worker Engagement
Gallup released their 2023 State of the Global Workforce report, which has some key insights for small businesses in today’s labor market.
According to Gallup’s research, only 31% of workers in the US and Canada are fully engaged in the workplace and 47% want to leave their current job.
The current workforce is demoralized and unmotivated, which is why RedBalloon is working on a report on how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives harm the workplace. We have a growing body of research about how DEI is making the workplace more divisive, exclusionary, and ineffective.
The economy is already suffering from high inflation, a tight labor market, and low worker engagement and productivity. We don’t need DEI to make it worse.
70% of Job Openings Require a Bachelor’s Degree But 37% of Workers Don’t Have One
According to LinkedIn, 70% of open positions require a Bachelor’s Degree, but according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, only 37% of workers actually have one.
For employers hiring in a tight labor market, an option may be to waive the degree requirement and focus more on skills.
Thousands of Companies are Finding Success at RedBalloon.work
Employers who are tired of struggling to find qualified, reliable talent are saving time and money at RedBalloon.work, where we start with candidates who have a strong work ethic and are values-aligned. We don’t flood businesses with hundreds of resumes that cost them time and money, often without results. As one RedBalloon customer recently remarked, “The hardest part of using RedBalloon was that I received seventeen resumes and only needed to hire one person. Every single one of the seventeen was highly qualified.”
Visit RedBalloon.work today and see how we can save you time and money by finding the right talent for your open positions.