About three in 10 small business owners (29%) report having open roles they have been unable to fill for at least three months, unchanged for the past four quarters of the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Confidence Survey. The overall index score continues to hover around all-time lows, holding at 44 out of 100, unchanged from Q4 2021 and nearly identical to the score of 43 from a year ago.
Other key findings from the latest survey, fielded January 24 - 30, 2022:
- Three in four small business owners (74%) say they’re currently experiencing a rise in supply costs, unchanged from Q4 (75%)
- However, an increasing number of small business owners are passing on the rising cost of inputs to their customers
- Just 28% of small business owners are confident in the Federal Reserve’s ability to control inflation, while 71% are not confident
- COVID hits (again): Two-thirds of small business owners say they have had problems with too many workers being unable to work after testing positive for COVID
- 33% of small business owners now approve of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president, while 67% disapprove (was 34%/65% in Q4 2021)
- 31% of small business owners say inflation is the biggest risk to their business now, topping supply chain disruptions (23%), COVID-19 (20%), and labor shortage (12%)
Read more about our polling methodology here.
Click through all the results in the interactive toplines below:
