Finding help continues to be a huge problem for the nation’s small businesses, according to the latest Jobs Report put out monthly by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading association of Main Street enterprises.

 “Our Jobs Report is a national snapshot, not broken down by state,” said Ronda Wiggers, state director for NFIB in Montana. “The employment situation in Montana is a little better than in the rest of the nation in part due to better state policies we have in place. But our Main Street entrepreneurs here share with their national brethren small businesses’ overriding concern about the fate of the Main Street Tax Certainty Act (H.R. 4721, S. 1706), which would make the 20% Small Business Deduction permanent. Without it, taxes will increase on over 90% of small business owners if Congress fails to act.”

“Job openings on Main Street remain historically high as small business owners continue to lament the lack of qualified applicants for their open positions. Owners have grown understandably frustrated as attempts to fill their workforce repeatedly stall and cost pressures continue to rise.”

 Highlights from the Latest Jobs Report

* Overall, 62% of small business owners reported hiring or trying to hire in August, up five points from July. Fifty-six percent (90% of those hiring or trying to hire) of owners reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.

 * Thirty-six percent have openings for skilled workers (up four points) and 15% have openings for unskilled labor (down one point)

 * Job openings in construction were up five points from July and over half of them (60%) have a job opening they can’t fill. Job openings were the highest in the transportation, construction, and manufacturing sectors, and the lowest in the agriculture and finance sectors.

* A seasonally adjusted net 13% of owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down two points from July.