Small Business Snapshot — March 2023

Summary

The March 2023 Small Business Snapshot, dated March 16, 2023, presents economic data and updates on the small business economy. It reports that the prices consumers paid increased .4 percent in February as compared to January and 6.0 percent over the last 12 months. It gives the unemployment rate as 3.6 percent, says 311,000 jobs were created in February, and reports a labor force participation rate of 62.5 percent. For the week ending March 11, 2023, the Department of Labor reported initial unemployment claims of 192,000.

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SMALL BUSINESS SNAPSHOT
Source(print): https://smallbusiness.house.gov/news/documentprint.aspx?DocumentID=405477

SMALL BUSINESS SNAPSHOT 

 smallbusiness.house.gov 

 Cmte Small Business (R) 

 Contact: 

 SMALL BUSINESS SNAPSHOT 

 MARCH 2023 

 Washington ,
 March 16, 2023 
 -

 After another month of newly released economic data and surveys on the state of the country’s small businesses, one thing is abundantly clear: this economy is still not working for Main Street America. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released this month once again confirmed inflation continues to be stuck at unprecedentedly high levels, coming in at 6 percent. Equally concerning, core CPI, which excludes food and energy, and is used by economists to better measure inflationary trends, increased by the most in five months. According to small business owners, inflation remains the biggest issue facing their livelihoods and these economic trends do nothing to assuage these concerns. Worse, President Biden’s proposed budget doubles down on the administration’s failed tax and spend policies that gave us this current economic environment in the first place. Thankfully, with a Republican-led House, these massive Biden tax increases and proposed inflationary government spending will never see the light of day. 
 The below March 2023 Small Business Snapshot features numbers and updates to provide more insight into the current small business economy. 
 MAIN STREET MEASUREMENTS: 
 CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (INFLATION) 
 
 The prices consumers paid for goods and services increased .4 percent in February as compared to January but totaled a 6.0 percent increase when measured over the last 12 months. 
 
 PRODUCER PRICE INDEX 
 
 Wholesale prices decreased .1 percent in February and registered an increase of 4.6 percent year over year. 
 
 JOB OPENINGS 
 
 At the end of January, businesses were unable to fill 10.8 million jobs, 3.9 million workers quit their jobs, and layoffs increased to 1.7 million. 
 
 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 
 
 311,000 jobs were created in February, and the unemployment rate slightly increased to 3.6 percent. 5.9 million Americans are unemployed. 
 
 LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE 
 
 The labor force participation rate increased to 62.5 percent in February. 
 
 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS 
 
 For the week ending March 11, 2023, the Department of Labor reported that initial unemployment claims were 192,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week. 
 
 The 4-week moving average of initial claims totaled 196,500.

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