Posted on 06/06/2021 5:37:36 PM PDT by blam
As small businesses complain that it has never been harder for them to hire workers according to a recent NFIB survey, many are facing growing pressure to survive. As the American economy continues to reopen, some fear it might not happen soon enough to save thousands of small businesses. Data from Alignable’s June Revenue Poll shows that 35% of all small business owners are still at risk of closing permanently by the end of the summer.
Among the 3,772 small business owners in the 10 days ended June 1, Alignable’s June Revenue Poll showed a myriad of factors – including the remaining closures and restrictions, growing inflationary pressures on prices, rising gas and transportation prices and labor shortages – are creating problems that affect small businesses more intensely than their corporate partners.
The biggest increase in the survey was trouble finding employees, which was identified as a potential closure risk by 55% of respondents, up from just 5% the prior month.
For the record, Alignable calculates the percentage of small business owners who believe their businesses are in jeopardy by combining the answers to two of its questions: what percentage of last summer’s revenue will these businesses make this summer? And what percentage of last year’s revenue do they need to earn to ensure their business stays afloat. If the first is smaller than the second, then businesses are deemed to be in jeopardy.
Beyond this, several respondents complained about the lingering impact of not being able to fully reopen. Some say they’ve had to take a second job to keep their small business afloat long enough to see if it actually has a chance to recover after COVID subsides.
Based on the answers to the first question, only 22% of small business owners said they expected to make as much or more than they earned last summer. Considering that 40-50% of small businesses weren’t even fully open last summer, this figure alone is cause for alarm.
Retailers and restaurant owners were also feeling slightly better about their prospects, but many are still concerned about their prospects. Some expressed worries about whether to impose mandatory masking policies and other precautions since a significant slice of the population remains unvaxxed.
Amid these frustrating insights, there is an important silver lining: 33% of business owners said they had fully recovered to their pre-COVID monthly revenue numbers, adding more support for the “two recoveries” narrative that’s also encapsulated by the recent winnings of “meme stock” traders who have come into sudden financial windfalls by betting on hot stocks like AMC, which soared past $70 a share last night.
For many small business owners, watching millions of Americans collect “enhanced” unemployment checks, while others make thousands of dollars betting on stocks, feels like salt in their wounds.
Big Brother is very pleased.
Middle Classes are verboten !
The global minimum tax on businesses will kill them all off.
Who wants to start or sustain a business under this nonsense.
Where? Small business is BOOMING in my State. There is a disconnect in this Country. The government wants to spend trillions of dollars to save the economy.. There is nothing to save in a lot of States. We are doing fine. It will only make things worse.
This past year-plus has been the DemocRATS/Deep State’s version of DESTRUCTION OF THE KULAK CLASS. They do not want independent minds that think for themselves.
Normally, I’m all-in when it comes to Mother Government turning back control to the STATES to do the Right Thing during this Sham-Demic.
Sadly, ALL Blue States and blue enclaves in Red States totally screwed this up for all of us.
Party & Power over Liberty & Freedom.
This was a huge and EXPENSIVE lesson to learn. :(
P.S. Let me mention again how HAPPY I am to be Retired and not to have these business worries, today. Managing a business during the, ‘0bama Reign of Error’ was hard enough!
Thanks, Papa Joe!!
Is there a correlation between Shut Down States ran by Democrats as opposed to open States ran by Republicans?? Shouldn’t that be a Major part of this equation?
Fauci shut everything down. It couldn’t survive a year.. down..
Riots.. burning.. looting..
Constant harassment on TRUMP.
Its been rough!
I see signs at McDonald’s offering $15.00 an hour, and Costco is paying $16.00 to start. Lots of mom & pop stores and restaurants offering $15.00 to 17.00 an hour to start.
Those wages are the market reality and to compete for workers, small businesses will have to offer the same pay scale.
Some expressed worries about whether to impose mandatory masking policies and other precautions since a significant slice of the population remains unvaxxed.
I’m the last three months, I have been to five states and at least ten big cities and in every one of those businesses, small and large are hiring.
don’t worry- minority owned businesses are getting big handouts from Zhao Biden, so only whitey is getting screwed.
I’ll take Plandemics for $500, Alex.
“The biggest increase in the survey was trouble finding employees, “
They’re coming......no wall.
The government is paying people more to stay at home than to work, with money it doesn’t have. What could possibly go wrong with that? The gravy train is ending in a lot of states, but a number of blue states haven’t shut off the spigot yet.
When I first started reading Zero hedge I thought they were telling me what was going on. As time passed I saw them for the Gloom and Doom site, I could not put any faith in what they were writing. So I now rarely read them.
A restaurateur acquaintance who is having difficulty restaffing told me that several of his servers have offered to return to work, provided they were paid off the books so that they could continue to collect their unemployment benefits and governmental subsidies. As my sainted grandmother used to say, "America Bella!"
Cloward-Piven on steroids.
Lots of talk on the left about liveable wages.
They talk about things like trades etc making what they make, what’s wrong with paying retail workers or fast food workers something closer, then everyone would make better money.
I would never attempt to explain economics to people like that, it would be a wasted effort.
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