Small Businesses Worry About Labor Quality, Inflation, and Falling Profit

NFIB Small Business Optimism

Please consider the NFIB Small Business Trends report for April 2023.

Heading into April small business optimism was below the long-term average of 98 for 15 months. This makes 16.

Small business optimism is 98.0, worse than any month of the Covid pandemic.

Small Business Sales 

9 percent of small businesses report a net decline in sales. 

This is the worst things have been since August of 2020 in the Covid pandemic crisis.

Prices Falling

A net 33 percent of small businesses report a rise in sales. But this is down from 66 percent in March of 2022.

Even though prices are up, earnings aren’t. Prices received are not keeping up with inflation.

Small Business Earnings 

A net 23 percent of small businesses report a decline in earnings.

Small businesses are struggling with inflation.

Job Opening High, Plans to Hire Falling

55 percent of small businesses report few or no qualified applicants.

Small Business Prices and Labor Compensation 

A net 40 percent of small businesses report increasing labor compensation.

Small Business Outlook 

Net Percent (“Better” Minus “Worse”) Six Months From Now (Seasonally Adjusted) is at a net negative 49 percent. 

These numbers are the worst ever.

Inflation and Quality of Labor the Most Important Problems

The Three most important problems of small business owners are quality of labor, inflation, and taxes. 

What Does President Biden Want To Do?

  • Mandate more free benefits including child care and paid time off.
  • Force more businesses into collective bargaining agreements.
  • Concoct more rules and regulations that businesses must comply with.
  • Make businesses submit environmental protection plans.
  • Raise taxes.

Perfect Plan

Biden has a perfect plan to destroy small businesses.

The worst in history look-ahead optimism numbers at a net negative 49 percent shows that small businesses are fully aware of what the president is doing. 

Battles Rage Over Biden’s Clean Energy Projects as the Size and Cost Jump

Hey guess what. The cost of Biden’s ridiculously named Inflation Reduction Act is soaring.

For discussion, please see Battles Rage Over Biden’s Clean Energy Projects as the Size and Cost Jump

Meanwhile, Biden insists that reducing the deficit is a nonstarter in budget ceiling talks.

Meanwhile, the debt ceiling clock is ticking away. And the onus is now on Democrats to do something.

Hello President Biden, the Ball Is In Your Court. Just don’t expect any meaningful action.

This post originated at MishTalk.Com

Please Subscribe!

Like these reports? I hope so, and if you do, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Mish

Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Subscribers get an email alert of each post as they happen. Read the ones you like and you can unsubscribe at any time.

This post originated on MishTalk.Com

Thanks for Tuning In!

Mish

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

25 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Webe
Webe
11 months ago
Small business optimism is 98.0
Isn’t that a Typo for 88, and possible contamination from 98 long-term average?
MPO45v2
MPO45v2
11 months ago
CPI out this morning. 5.5% for core inflation. overall 4.9% so still a way to go and it seems lower energy was a big help but will that last over the summer?
8dots
8dots
11 months ago
SPX do nothing for one year in a depressed level. Small businesses earnings tested 2020 zombie level. BCOM, the commodity index, might popup after testing Mar 16 2023 and July 2022 lows, for fun.
vanderlyn
vanderlyn
11 months ago
stagflation today is like 70s. really tough times for business owners. i lived in a hood surrounded by men who owned their own small manufacturing, real estate, construction, bond trading houses………….a rich hood with owners, not employees. it was bleak for most for close to 20 years. lots of down sizing in lifestyles and companies. many working class hoods went from decent in early 60s to slums by mid 70s. inflation is a killer. stagflation is here. inflation is cumulative. mish and many analysts miss this simple point. they cranked up the money supply about 120% since covid, on top of what they did 15 years ago. it’s banana republic like when a hundred dollar bill buys bubkiss. all this talk about deflation is insane. CRE hasn’t even started to really crash. watch the mayhem unfold for the next decade. i’ve lived through a hood that lost 75% of r/e values and 1/3 of houses lost to banks or short sales……………..it’s ugly. most can’t deal with that reality, so they just bury their heads in booze and entertainment…………….
Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
11 months ago
Reply to  vanderlyn
Perhaps supplying booze and entertainment will be a more rewarding investment than gas and oil.
jiminy
jiminy
11 months ago
Reply to  vanderlyn
Depression level unemployment in the 1970’s rust bowl. The 70’s were horrible for many, I wonder if today’s people are prepared for this possibility?
vanderlyn
vanderlyn
11 months ago
Reply to  jiminy
prepared? hell no. will they live and adjust. heck yes.
8dots
8dots
11 months ago
Small businesses best earnings, hardly positive, were in 2018/2019. In 2020 many disappeared. Since 2022 many are one person show online. Small businesses lost money for 40 years, but somehow survived. It’s a miracle.
Six000mileyear
Six000mileyear
11 months ago
Conditions were declining before COVID, which was consistent with a stock market consolidation between October 2018 and March 2020
MBA SOFA
MBA SOFA
11 months ago
And many job applicants are high on marijuana: 20% of 12th graders, the latest studies show.
Zardoz
Zardoz
11 months ago
Reply to  MBA SOFA
It’s Reefer Madness out there!
Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
11 months ago
Reply to  Zardoz
High Times…
TexasTim65
TexasTim65
11 months ago
Reply to  MBA SOFA
Once it’s legalized everywhere expect the number to climb into the 80% range which is probably the percentage of 12th graders who drink alcohol.
It’s hardly a big deal if they are getting high or drunk on their own time.
Christoball
Christoball
11 months ago
Reply to  MBA SOFA
Many Baby Boomers were high on Marijuana pills in the 60’s and 70’s. 40% of 12th graders.
HippyDippy
HippyDippy
11 months ago
I wonder how all the titles say things like worst since depression or recession or worst ever ,with all solutions making things worse; and yet people wonder if we might be stumbling into a recession. Of course we are! Don’t worry though, we’re just passing through.
Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
11 months ago
Reply to  HippyDippy
“The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead,” – JMK
HippyDippy
HippyDippy
11 months ago
Reply to  Lisa_Hooker
We’re pretty sickly right now.
MPO45v2
MPO45v2
11 months ago
Government regulation was 6 on the list and the least of the problems for small businesses so that narrative seems a bit off.
Inflation and Quality of Labor are directly correlated in the adage “you get what you pay for…” but it fits my narrative that there are too many people (experienced & trained) retiring every year and not enough young/trained people to replace them.
It takes years to train an airline pilot or an engineer so when a few hundred or thousand retire it’s not easy to replace them. To make matters worse is burnout where some professions such as nursing get burned out of having to carry excessive work loads for long periods of time. Other professions like teaching are becoming impossible trying to please 5 different masters (parents, school board, woke left, taliban right, and normal people).
Offering education seems to be the right thing to do to improve quality of labor assuming the education offered is actually good.
MikeC711
MikeC711
11 months ago
Reply to  MPO45v2
Big assumption at the end. Our kids are miles behind other developed countries in STEM and writing … but they know more of the 999 genders and proper pronouns than any of the other developed nations know.
Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
11 months ago
Reply to  MikeC711
No discipline to learn to touch type but have the quickest thumbs ever.
shamrock
shamrock
11 months ago
Reply to  MikeC711
I can always tell the commenters who don’t have kids.
shamrock
shamrock
11 months ago
I wonder if small businesses are upset about Biden’s $3t in forgiven PPP loans.
KidHorn
KidHorn
11 months ago
To be fair to Biden, I doubt he had anything to do with his policies. Doubt he even knows what his policies are.
Mjs357
Mjs357
11 months ago
Reply to  KidHorn
Agree 90%, Inflation is something he had to do with in his long career in govt going back to when he marched with Susan B Anthony for women’s rights. Quality of labor falls squarely on society, parents, educators, those that are considered influencers. I just came back from Nashville and Memphis. Quality of service depended highly on location of that service in the cities. Great vacay, nice ppl all around.
Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
11 months ago
Reply to  KidHorn
Joe’s conception of policies is what he keeps folded up in the safety deposit box.

Stay Informed

Subscribe to MishTalk

You will receive all messages from this feed and they will be delivered by email.