Small businesses are bracing for a year of labor shortages, inflation woes and reduced consumer demand even as they grow hopeful about recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, recent studies show.
Small businesses are bracing for a year of labor shortages, inflation woes and reduced consumer demand even as they grow hopeful about recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, studies show.
Inflation eased for the seventh consecutive month in January. The annual rate of rising prices for goods and services slowed to 6.4%, the federal government reported Tuesday. “I think inflation is still creeping up,” said Said Eastman, CEO of JobsInTheUS.com, based in Westbrook, Maine. “I see tightness in the labor market, wage pressure driven by competition, and clients who are paying more for goods and services they need to deliver to their clients.”
Pressures facing small businesses this year include wage inflation and decreased consumer demand stemming from interest rate hikes. Others include threats of renewed supply chain disruptions as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, new COVID-19 variants and a potential government shutdown in the divided Congress.
Small businesses account for 99.9% of all businesses nationwide, according to a report from the Small Business Administration, an independent federal agency. They employ roughly 61.7 million people, 46.6% of the nation’s workforce.
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