Alignable’s December Hiring Report is out today and the news is troubling, reflecting significant surges in layoffs and hiring freezes among small businesses across North America.
- Nearly twice as many small business employers (15%) are laying off staffers in Dec. compared to Nov., when the figure was only 8%.
- An average of 74% of small business employers have instituted hiring freezes until at least Q2 2023, up 12 percentage points from Nov. They’re saying they can’t afford to hire full-time, permanent staffers now given inflation, reduced revenues, high labor costs, and fears of a recession.
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Surges In Layoffs And Hiring Freezes
The report is based on the sentiments of 6,908 randomly selected small business owners polled from 11/19/22 to 12/8/22, as well as 100,000+ historical responses from surveys over the past 2.5 years. Additional highlights include:
- 61% of all SMB owners say high inflation continues to have a very negative impact on their financial well-being.
- Only 14% report that they have fully recovered, earning the same or more monthly revenue generated prior to COVID, while their costs have skyrocketed. This recovery rate is down from 24% in October, and 43% a year ago in Dec. 2021.
- 18% of construction firms (up 6%), and 17% of real estate companies (up 9%) are laying off workers, largely due to elevated interest rates & inflation
- 17% of transportation companies are letting staffers go, up 13% from Nov.
- 14% of retailers are laying off workers, up 13% from last month. 40% of retailers say they’re earning less in Q4 2022 than they did in Q4 2021.
- 11% of restaurateurs are reducing their staff (up 5%), while overall, 56% are implementing hiring freezes (up 3%). At the same time, the 44% who are still hiring, report trouble finding the right workers.
- However, there are two silver linings: only 4% of manufacturers and only 1% of travel SMBs are having layoffs. Both sectors are showing signs of recovery.
- States with the highest number of SMBs implementing hiring freezes include IL (82%), MI (80%), CO (79%), NJ (77%), CA (76%), & TX (75%).
- States with the highest percentage of SMB layoffs include CO (21%), MI (20%), TX (17%), CA (16%), NC (16%), OH (12%), and IL (11%). (Note: Layoff figures are included in state hiring freeze totals).
- Canada has the same percentage of small businesses implementing hiring freezes (74%) and laying off staff (15%), as the U.S. does. (Ontario leads the provinces in small business layoffs with 16%, up 14% from November).
