NFIB: small businesses are not hiring

The nation’s small businesses are continuing to “shrink,” reporting an average gain of negative .09 jobs per firm in June, a national small business group says its latest survey has found.

“Essentially zero,” William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said in a statement released today.

Dunkleberg is reacting to the June job numbers, based on the NFIB’s monthly economic survey that the organization will release next Tuesday.

He believes the small-business community has only to look to Washington for reasons why the economy can’t seem to “maintain steam” and is on a “painfully slow” journey towards job creation.

Uncertainty about the federal health-care law continues to have a “negative” impact on small businesses, Dunkleberg said.

“Small employers are still trying to figure out what labor will cost and what firm size will have to comply with which rules. As long as Washington continues to create rolling disasters, [including] exemptions, special deals, delays, confusion, [and] contradictory regulations, small businesses will not be ready to bet on their future by hiring lots of workers with uncertain cost,” Dunkleberg said.

The NFIB survey found 11 percent of small-business owners (up two points) reported adding an average of 3.6 workers per firm over the past few months.

But that figure is offset by the 12 percent of respondents that reduced employment (unchanged) an average of 4.3 workers (a seasonally adjusted figure), producing a seasonally adjusted gain of negative 0.09 workers per firm overall, according to Dunkelberg.

The remaining 77 percent of owners made no net change in employment, he said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com