Small Business Owners Say Job Market Cooling

December's NFIB survey of small business owners should make the Fed's hawks a bit less hawkish. They want to see evidence that the labor market is cooling and that inflationary pressures are easing. Today's NFIB report confirmed that both may be underway:

(1) Fed officials have been focusing on job openings in the JOLTS report. They want to see it drop significantly indicating that labor demand is falling relative to supply. That series is available through November (chart). They should be looking at the percent of small business owners with job openings in the NFIB survey. It closely tracks the JOLTS series and dropped sharply during December.