Despite an unemployment rate that remains high at 6.2%, good labor in America is in short supply.
This is the message of the NFIB's July small business optimism survey.
Forty-two percent of respondents say there are "few or no qualified applicants" for jobs. This number has been trending higher since 2009.
Twenty-one percent of firms have reported actual compensation changes in the past three months; this number has also been trending only higher since 2009.
While sales continues to be a bigger concern for small businesses, it continues to drop as the single most important problem. This is interesting because it suggests economic concerns are shifting from weak demand to tight supply.
All of this points to higher wages for America's workers, which in turn should lead to higher inflation.
