(Bloomberg) - A record 50% of U.S. small-business owners said they raised compensation in January amid still-elevated job openings, the National Federation of Independent Business said Thursday.
With some 47% of small businesses reporting job openings last month that they could not fill, employers have been raising wages to attract skilled candidates -- a trend that doesn’t appear to be reversing any time soon.
Over a quarter of small businesses plan to raise compensation in the next three months, still historically high but lower than the record high seen in the prior three months, NFIB data show.
“Small-business owners are managing the reality that the number of job openings exceeds the number of unemployed workers, producing a tight labor market and adding pressure on wage levels,” Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Reports of owners raising compensation continues at record-high levels to attract applicants to their open positions.”
The share of firms that raised compensation was the largest in monthly data back to 1986 and up two points from December. And despite the surge in Covid-19 infections in January, 59% of small employers reported hiring or trying to hire. A net 26% of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months.
By Reade Pickert
