NFIB’s August jobs report shows a healthy small business job market, albeit slightly softer than July. A seasonally adjusted 35 percent of owners reported jobs openings they could not fill, down 1 point from July and 11 points above the historical average.
“Small businesses are slowing down their hiring efforts as the summer comes to an end, with fewer owners reporting job openings or plans to create new positions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “The pressure to offer competitive wages is still high, but it’s no longer a top challenge for most Main Street employers.”
“It looks like we may have missed our opportunity this summer to dig our way out of Oregon’s worst-in-the-nation unemployment rate,” said Anthony Smith, state director for NFIB in Oregon. “Every state has to deal with the same national and international economic conditions, but Oregon is clearly falling short where other states are prospering.”
- The Small Business Employment Index declined 0.3 points in August to 101.8, remaining slightly above both the 2025 average of 101.2 and the historical average of 100.0.
- Overall, 56 percent of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in August, down 5 points from July. Forty-seven percent (82 percent of those hiring or trying to hire) of owners reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill. Twenty-nine percent of owners reported few qualified applicants for their open positions and 18 percent reported none.
- Thirty-one percent have openings for skilled workers (unchanged) and 13 percent have openings for unskilled labor (down 1 point).
- A seasonally adjusted net 17 percent of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down 3 points from July’s reading.
- The percent of small business owners reporting “labor quality or availability” as their top operating problem fell 4 points from July to 23 percent, 11 points above the historical average of 12 percent. Labor costs reported as the single most important problem for business owners fell 1 point from July to 7 percent, the lowest level since March 2021.
- Seasonally adjusted, a net 31 percent of small business owners reported raising compensation in August, unchanged from last month’s reading. A net 18 percent (seasonally adjusted) plan to raise compensation in the next three months, down 1 point from July.
Click here to view the entire NFIB Jobs Report.
