Job Openings

·         One-quarter of small employers have an open position they are currently trying to fill (Q#1).

·         The majority of small employers without a current open position had a job vacancy within the last 12 months, 48 percent within the last six months (Q#2).

·         Just over half (56 percent) of the job openings were full-time positions while 44 percent were part-time (Q#3).

·         About one-quarter of current and recently filled open positions were seasonal in nature; 71 percent were not (Q#4). Smaller firms were far more likely to have seasonal job vacancies than larger firms (29% compared to 11%).

·         About half of the vacant jobs were filled within two weeks and another 20 percent within two to four weeks (Q#5). Some open positions though took longer with 12 percent taking 1 to 3 months to fill and 10 percent took more than three months.

·         While most small business owners pay all of their employees above the federal minimum wage, about 44 percent of small employers have an employee with a salary less than $12.00.

·         The majority (57 percent) of small employers keep their employees’ I-9 forms for more than two years, another 9 percent retain copies for less than two years (Q#21).

·         About one-quarter (26 percent) of small employers found the lack of job-specific or occupational skills a typical problem among applicants, and it was an occasional problem for another 40 percent of owners (Q#16A).

·         A lack of social or people skills was a typical applicant problem for 14 percent of small employers, and an occasional problem for 45 percent of them (Q#16C).

·         About half (47 percent) of small employers said that a two-year phased-in federal minimum wage increase to $15.00 would negatively impact their business (Q#26).

·         Of those small employers reporting that a $15.00 minimum wage would negatively impact their business, 85 percent anticipate that they would have to increase the price of their goods and/or services, passing on some of that cost to the consumer. And 74 percent reported that they would absorb wage increases through lower earnings.

·         Fifty-eight percent anticipated an increased use of less expensive or part-time workers in response to a higher minimum wage, 69 percent would not fill an open position, 63 percent would reduce employees’ hours, and 62 percent would reduce the number of employees working for them.

·         Eighteen percent of small employers reporting that they would be negatively affected said that they would have to raise wages of those earning just above $15.00 and another 6 percent said they would have to raise wages for most of their employees. Eleven percent anticipated having to raise wages for all of their employees.