GOLDMAN Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices released a new report that found 97 percent of small businesses hiring said difficulty hiring was affecting their bottom line — a 17-point increase from 2021. Seventy-three percent of small businesses having difficulty hiring said competition with larger employers on pay and benefits explains their recruiting challenges.

RETENTION is also a major issue. Seventy-five percent of small business owners having difficulty retaining employees can’t afford to compete on salaries, 67 percent said they can’t afford to compete on benefits, and 39 percent said they can’t afford to offer a retirement plan. Only 41 percent of small business owners offer retirement benefits and that drops to 23 percent among Black small business owners.

THE Pew Research Center published a study that details the major reasons U.S. workers left a job in 2021 is because of low pay (37 percent), a lack of opportunities for advancement (33 percent), and feeling disrespected at work (35 percent).

FINDINGS from that same survey showed that adults younger than 30 are more likely than older adults to have voluntarily left their job last year (37 percent), compared with 17 percent of those ages 30 to 49, 9 percent between ages 50 to 64 and 5 percent of respondents ages 65 and older.

AMONG U.S. adults who quit a job in 2021, those without a fouryear college degree are more likely than those with at least a bachelor’s degree to quit their jobs, due to not having enough flexibility to decide when they put in their hours (49 percent of noncollege graduates vs. 34 percent of college graduates), having to work too few hours (35 percent vs. 17 percent) and their employer requiring a Covid-19 vaccine (21 percent vs. 8 percent).