About 45 percent of small business owners in the United States are freezing the hiring of new workers because of high labor costs and skyrocketing inflation, according to the Alignable July Hiring Report.
A competing survey came up with similar results, interviewing 4,739 small business owners, conducted from late June through mid-July.
This is despite 51 percent of small employers still trying to find workers to fill important posts, but the shift in the labor situation this summer has made things more difficult.
The report, released July 21, followed the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed consumer prices rose 9.1 percent in the past year, the highest in more than 40 years. Meanwhile, the BLS producer price index rose nearly the highest ever at 11.3 percent in the previous 12 months.