The daily publication · November 12, 2026 · Small business

Owners say labor is still the top problem, and taxes just jumped to second

By Tabron Merryhill · The Workflow

The headline number barely moved. The work underneath it did.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for October was 97.8. That is down 0.1 points from September and just below its 53-year average of 98. The survey came out on November 10. NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg leads the survey work.

Look past that flat line and two problems stand out.

Labor quality or availability was the top problem for 25 percent of owners. That is the fourth month in a row at the top, and it sits 13 points above the historical average of 12 percent.

Taxes jumped to second. Twenty-one percent of owners named taxes as their top problem, up 10 points from September and the highest reading since May 2021.

The hiring numbers match the complaint. A seasonally adjusted 36 percent of owners had job openings they could not fill, up 4 points. Fifty-six percent were hiring or trying to hire. Of those, 86 percent said they found few or no qualified applicants.

At the same time, a net 37 percent plan to raise prices. That is the highest share since July 2022. And most owners still rate their own business well, with 15 percent saying excellent and 54 percent saying good.

The idea

The problem is not demand. The problem is capacity.

An owner who cannot fill a role does not have a posting problem. The owner has a work design problem. The same hours have to cover the customers who show up today, and now a heavier tax and compliance load is landing on the same small team.

Posting the same opening again will not fix that. The work itself has to change so fewer scarce hours get spent on tasks that do not need a scarce person.

The example

Take the numbers as one shop would feel them.

More than a third of owners have an opening they cannot fill. Almost nine in ten of those who are hiring find few or no qualified people. So the owner covers the shift, trains whoever does show up, and still has to keep the books clean.

Then taxes move from a background worry to the second biggest problem in one month. That is not just a bill. It is hours. Hours spent pulling records, checking filings, and answering questions a fuller team would split up.

Price rises are how owners try to get room back. A net 37 percent plan them, the most since 2022. A price rise can protect a margin. It cannot create an hour in the day. Only a change in how the work runs can do that.

The next step

Pick one role you cannot fill. Do not start with the job ad. Start with the week.

First, write down every task that role was supposed to own for one week. Mark each task in plain terms. It needs judgment. It needs a license or a trained hand. Or it is repeat work that follows the same steps each time.

Second, move the repeat work off that list. Give it a clear owner, a clear checklist, or a tool you already pay for. Keep a person on the step that can cost money or hurt a customer if it goes wrong.

Third, put the tax work on the same calendar now, not at filing time. List the records you will need, who pulls them, and when. The survey says that load is rising, and a small team feels a surprise deadline more than a big one.

And hear the other side clearly. The flat headline hides weak results. Finimize notes the earnings trend stayed at a net minus 23 percent, and owners grew more downbeat on credit conditions at a net minus 5 percent. The Dow Jones report notes uncertainty fell to 84, its lowest since December 2025, but that is still well above its historical average of 68. Only 11 percent of owners said it is a good time to expand.

That is the honest picture. Owners are not collapsing. They are also not coasting. They are holding sales up with too few people, and the fix is in how the work is built, not in one more posting.

Want help finding the one bottleneck in your operation worth fixing first? A free 10-minute workflow conversation will map where the hours go and who signs off before anything final. No pitch, just the map.

Sources: NFIB, https://www.nfib.com/news/press-release/new-nfib-survey-main-street-optimism-remains-steady-uncertainty-declines-in-october/; TradingView (Dow Jones Newswires), https://www.tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20261110003314:0-u-s-small-business-confidence-held-steady-in-october/; Finimize, https://finimize.com/content/small-business-optimism-held-steady-even-as-costs-bit; Floor Focus, https://www.floorfocus.com/flooring-news/small-business-optimism-virtually-flat-in-october-at-97-8/. Opposing view: Finimize, https://finimize.com/content/small-business-optimism-held-steady-even-as-costs-bit.