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More than half of US small-business owners said they had open positions they could not fill in May, matching the record set in September and highlighting persistent hiring difficulties for firms in an extremely tight labor market.
Fifty-one percent of firms had vacancies last month, up four percentage points from April, according to data out Thursday from the National Federation of Independent Business. A near-record 49% of small-business owners said they raised compensation.
“The labor force participation rate is slowly rising but small businesses continue to have a hard time filling their open positions,” Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist, said in a statement. “The number of job openings continues to exceed the number of unemployed workers which has produced a tight labor market and added pressure on wage levels.”
A quarter of small firms said they are planning to raise worker pay in…
