Some small businesses put hiring on back burner as labor market cools

We’ve seen a lot of hard data recently telling us that the job market is slowing down. On Wednesday, we talked about the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for July.

The takeaway: Job openings fell more than expected. On Thursday, we got the latest private-sector payrolls report from ADP. That takeaway? Job growth slowed down.

We’ll get a more detailed, sector-by-sector picture of the job market Friday, when the government releases national employment data for August.

Meanwhile, we’ve also seen anecdotal reports about the job market, courtesy of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which came out this week. Some businesses told Fed researchers they reduced the number of available shifts and left open positions unfilled.

Others said they’ve been getting more selective about new hires and they’re feeling less pressure to hike wages.

This time of year tends to be pretty busy at Red Hen Baking Co. in Middlesex, Vermont. Co-owner Randy George said his cafe gets a lot of tourist traffic in the summer and early fall.

This time last year, he couldn’t find enough staff to handle the busy season.

“We ended up even having to get to a point in September where we had to close one day of the week in our cafe,” George said.

This year, George said, more applicants have been showing up when he posts a job. Meanwhile, he’s focused on making sure his current employees want to stay onboard.

That means trying to help them find affordable housing in a tough market. Also, keeping his wages competitive.

“We’ve made three fairly significant increases in our pay scale in the last four years, and we feel that we probably need to do that again pretty soon,” George said.

At some small businesses, the job market is a nonissue, according to Chris Duong, general manager of Hawaii Supermarket near Los Angeles.

“We’re pretty much staffed to capacity at the moment,” Duong said.

His grocery sales have been sluggish this year, so instead of hiring new staff, he’s focused more on working with his suppliers to keep his prices down.

“We would rather err on the safe side and just kind of buckle down and work with what we have than try to hire more and not be able to sustain the new hires that we bring on,” Duong said.

Meanwhile, in Oceanside, California, Jenny Niezgoda’s been running her market and catering business called Al Fresko solo.

“You know, it’s just like me working triple the hours, staying open, you know, from, like, 11 in the morning till 10 p.m.,” Niezgoda said.

Niezgoda said she can’t afford to hire anyone, which has not been easy.

“I did kind of have, you know, I wouldn’t call it a meltdown, but I think we all have our moments as entrepreneurs where you’re like, ‘Can I keep going?’” Niezgoda said.

She hasn’t given up. Next month, Niezgoda’s launching a wine subscription service.