WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development is holding a hybrid hearing titled "Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!"

Subcommittee Ranking Member Young Kim's opening statement as prepared for delivery:

Thank you, Chairman Crow, and good morning.

Today, we turn our attention to a topic that is paramount: small business jobs and whether the current environment can help the nation and its millions of small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.  In May, the national unemployment rate was a dismal 5.8 percent – which virtually unchanged from April and still far higher than before the pandemic, when it was a low 3.5 percent.

In my home state of California, the May unemployment rate was a stunning 7.9 percent. In my Congressional district, San Bernardino County registered 7.3 percent unemployment, and Orange County 5.9 percent. 

Small businesses are still suffering.  They are doing their best to regain footing after the COVID-19 pandemic.  But they are facing dismal national employment numbers, increasing inflation, labor shortages, and higher costs for their materials.   

The small business jobs situation remains extremely challenging.  Entrepreneurs are offering higher wages, cash bonuses, or other incentives, but still unable to attract workers.  In May, almost half of the small business owners surveyed by NFIB, 48 percent, said they are unable to find workers to fill jobs.

Moreover, they face a very uncertain future with higher inflation, more regulations, increasing mandates, skyrocketing taxes, and unprecedented job vacancies threatening their recovery.  Small businesses are the kindling that light up the American economy.  So when they struggle, so does our nation.

According to the Federal Reserve’s May 2021 Beige Book, businesses, and particularly small businesses, are continuing to cope with a very difficult economic environment.  The negative impact of supply chain and production disruptions, widespread shortages of materials and labor, and delivery delays make it challenging to get products to consumers.  Just this month, the Port of Los Angeles said ships wait on average about five days to get in, adding to the costs of doing business for entrepreneurs. In normal times, those ships don’t have to wait at all. Small firms are plagued by consistently rising costs and more expensive goods used to make their products.

With the generous enhanced federal unemployment payments, employment has clearly not shown robust numbers and businesses still can’t fill open jobs.  Although some states are ending the enhanced unemployment payments, the jobs outlook remains uncertain. 

Small businesses comprise 95 percent of U.S. companies, represent half of our nation’s workforce, and are major drivers of new job growth, creating 64 percent of the net new jobs. At a time when these firms are working tirelessly to get back on their feet, the new Administration is threatening them with repealing the tax benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; other tax increases; and proposing more regulations and red tape -- exactly the wrong environment for our nation’s best job creators.

A recent Tax Foundation analysis found the combined effects of tax changes and spending in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan would reduce U.S. gross domestic product in the long run and result in 101,000 fewer U.S. jobs.  Imagine that: a jobs plan that would result in fewer jobs! Sadly, my home state of California is a case study on what high taxes and burdensome regulations can do to tamper job and economic growth. Let’s learn from the misguided policies enacted by Sacramento, and let’s not implement them at the national level.

There is no doubt that the outlook for small businesses is more uncertainty.  However, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups are some of the most innovative and resilient businesses in the nation.  They are often nimble, fast, and they can adapt to any situation.  Unfortunately, the current environment is creating headwinds that prevent growth, expansion, and job creation.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the ways we can support pro-growth policies that drive our nation’s small businesses forward, not backwards.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.

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