Small businesses across the U.S. and Louisiana are slightly less optimistic these days about the future. Dawn McVea, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, says the uncertainty index climbed five points to 74 last month, with it, for one, hard for small businesses to find the right workers to fit the jobs available.
“It’s really a challenging time on the labor side of the equation,” said McVea.
And, then there are the operating struggles related to the higher compensation being offered workers to draw them to a job opening, 42 percent of owners doing so, at the detriment to what consumers may have to shell out for a business’s product.
As McVea puts it, businesses are left asking themselves “is it time to increase prices because at some point that has to be passed on to the consumer.”
McVea says the amount of goods available for businesses to sell is also a problem.
“Inventory is not up at the rate it would normally be, you have folks definitely reporting the supply chain is an issue,” said McVea.
Twelve percent of owners cite labor costs as their top business problem, while labor quality was 28 percent of their problem, both record highs.
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