US Small Business Hiring Plans Drop to Lowest Since May 2020

The share of US small businesses saying they’re planning new hires or are having trouble filling jobs fell in May to a six-year low, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

A seasonally adjusted 9% of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down 4 percentage points from April, and the share reporting they had job openings they couldn’t fill fell by 5 percentage points to 29%, the NFIB said in a release Thursday. Both measures were the lowest since May 2020.

The NFIB figures are at odds with Bureau ...