As some small business owners look to hire seasonal workers heading into December, about one-third are reporting job openings they cannot fill.
It’s the second consecutive month unfilled job openings hit 32%, according to the latest jobs report from the National Federation of Independent Businesses. The seasonally adjusted figure attempts to remove the influences of predictable patterns based on the time of year.
Hiring challenges persist despite 77% of small business owners telling Forbes Research in the spring that they planned to increase spending on talent. Thirty-five percent had planned significant increases, according to the Forbes Research 2025 Small Business Survey.
Unfilled Jobs Leave Trucks Without Drivers
Anecdotes collected from NFIB members point to a dearth of qualified labor in some sectors. Indeed, one Alabama small business that supplies drivers to trucking companies in the Southeast cited having no drivers between the ages of 20 and 40.
“Our clients have numerous trucks sitting — with no bodies in them to drive,” the anonymous owner was quoted saying in the report.
Another potential reason jobs are being left unfilled is that wages haven’t increased enough to offset cost-of-living increases caused by inflation.
In the Forbes Research survey, small business owners said “keeping up wages with the pace of inflation” was the top workforce challenge as cited by 36% of respondents.
Writer: Nick Clunn
Researcher: Dejarelle Gaines