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Alignable’s December Hiring report reveals that 82% of small
businesses in Illinois won’t be adding staff, the highest
percentage in the country.
Nationwide, an average of 74% of small business employers have
instituted hiring freezes until at least the spring of 2023, up
12 percentage points from November. The reasons include they
can’t afford to hire full-time permanent employees because of
inflation, reduced revenues, high labor costs and fears of
recession.
Agriculture, real estate and finance were the top three
industries implementing hiring freezes.
Eleven percent of Illinois small business owners indicated they
are planning layoffs in December, an increase of 8% from
November. Only Colorado (21%), Michigan (20%), Texas (17%),
California (16%), and Ohio (12%) had higher percentages.
“So many increased costs, for labor, for supplies, it is
impacting businesses and they’re just needing to scale back to
survive,” head researcher Chuck Casto said.
Sixty-one percent of small business owners nationwide said high
inflation continues to have a negative impact on their financial
well-being.
Casto said this time of year, businesses usually need extra help
for the holiday shopping season, but even that has dipped.
“Last year for instance, 36% were hiring for part-time help,
this quarter it has been somewhere between 6 and 9% hiring
additional help,” said Casto.
The report is based on the sentiments of 6,908 randomly selected
small business owners polled from Nov. to Dec. 8, as well as
100,000+ historical responses from surveys over the past 2.5
years.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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