America’s small businesses claim they can’t find employees, a Gallup Economy poll says, but amid the 65 percent of prospective employers who claim to encounter workforce shortages are three disturbing factors:
40% seek temporary or contract workers
36% seek part-time workers
53% say they are unable to find qualified employees
According to these numbers, three-quarters of available jobs are not full-time, and more than half of the companies seeking workers can’t find candidates with sufficient skills. It's a chronic problem facing the American workforce during this period of recovery, especially among large populations of disengaged people, many of whom are minorities.
At year’s end, 1.1 million people apparently had simply stopped looking for work.
Amid an improving economy, monthly jobless reports typically provide a number that shows fewer people filing for unemployment benefits. But a Reuters report published by the New York Times acknowledges that it’s not known how many in the 130,000 fewer people receiving benefits in January are no longer counted, because they may have exhausted their eligibility.
The unemployment figures, by race, for January:
- 13.8 percent among African-Americans
- 9.7 percent among Hispanics
- 7 percent among whites
- 6.5 percent among Asian-Americans
Read more about the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey.
Get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox. Sign up for National Journal's morning alert, Wake-Up Call, and afternoon newsletter, The Edge. Subscribe here.
Leave A Comment