Florida has witnessed a long steak of having a lower unemployment rate than the national figure. But small business employers in the Sunshine State along with other states say they are having a tough time filling open positions at their businesses.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) reports that in August, business owners across the U.S. said they cannot fill about 40% of all the job openings they have listed. That's up two points from the July figure.
NFIB officials said they have no break-out information for each state and they are using information provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). But even in an age of relatively low unemployment rates, employers are struggling to fill jobs that have remained open for a while.
"Job openings on Main Street remain historically high as small business owners continue to lament the lack of qualified applicants for their open positions," said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. "Owners have grown understandably frustrated as attempts to fill their workforce repeatedly stall and cost pressures continue to rise."
The August national unemployment rate released Friday showed the U.S. jobless figure came in at 4.2%, that's little change from the month before.
"The August jobs report highlights the crucial challenge of finding qualified workers for Florida's small business owners. For small businesses to grow and strengthen the economy, they need a productive workforce to reach their full potential," said NFIB Florida Executive Director Bill Herrle.
The lack of filling positions for many businesses is not for lack of effort by business owners. According to the NFIB, some 62% of small business owners hired or tried to hire new employees or replacement employees in August. That's up by five points in July.
In Florida, the number of jobs listings and the fact many of those remain unfilled showed up as a significant factor in the Florida unemployment report for July.
While the state monthly general unemployment rate for July was 3.3%, the Florida Commerce Department report pointed out there was a large disparity for jobs being filled and open positions being advertised in the state.
In July, there were 433,000 job openings posted online in Florida, which is more jobs advertised online than there were Floridians unemployed in July.
Florida's July unemployment rate of 3.3% is nearly one percentage point lower than the national figure which is 4.2%. July was the 45th straight month that the Sunshine State has had a lower unemployment rate than the national figure.
No comments:
Post a Comment