Small businesses have Now Hiring signs up — whether they need workers or not
Small businesses have Now Hiring signs up — whether they need workers or not
This is a big week for jobs data. On Friday, we’ll get the government’s official employment tally for March. Tuesday we got the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for February.
The JOLTS report, as it’s known, didn’t have much in the way of news. The number of openings basically didn’t change from the month before, so it’s still far below 2022 levels, when labor markets were extremely tight, but higher than before the pandemic. The number of people quitting their jobs didn’t change much either.
So I called up a few small-business owners and asked them what they’re seeing on the jobs front. Some said they have a lot of positions to fill.
“Twenty. I have 20 positions open,” said Marcia St. Hilaire-Finn, the owner of Bright Start Early Care & Preschool in Washington, D.C.
She recently opened a couple of new locations, and she’s trying to staff up.
But finding qualified candidates with degrees in early childhood education has been difficult, so she’s been hiring less qualified candidates so she can work them up toward getting that degree.
“We can have that person come in, they can sign up for a scholarship, we help them, we walk them through the process, we give them a mentor,” she said.
Other employers are having some luck finding candidates who can hit the ground running.
“Like, people that might have taken themselves out of the workplace during COVID, and they want to get back in the workforce,” said Ken Giddon, the president of Rothmans, a men’s clothing store in New York.
He’s trying to fill a few marketing positions right now, and he’s finding a lot of talented candidates.
“I’m getting approached by a lot of people, which I haven’t been since the pandemic,” Giddon said.
But even if more people are looking for jobs, not every business wants to bring them in.
“We are very lean right now. I’ve actually been working more hours in the store as well to help with that,” said Frankesha Watkins, the owner of BPolished Beauty Supply near Dallas.
She said she’s holding off on hiring because business has been fairly slow this year.
“A lot of people are having to choose between groceries and do I want this new wig. Or, you know, gas or do I want these extensions,” she said.
Still, Watkins is leaving one job posting up. She said it doesn’t cost anything, so she might as well keep her options open.
In fact, Watkins said she started leaving a position basically permanently posted two years ago, when people were quitting jobs all the time.
“Because I earmark every employee, unfortunately, to stay with me for probably eight months. I’ll be lucky if I have a year,” she said.
In other words, the number of job openings the government counts can overstate the number of people employers actually want to hire.
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