"The pay is good. The hours are flexible. What we do for a living is rewarding. It’s just that the competition is magnificent. It’s significantly more magnificent than me."

Nadia Haddad, a co-owner of Freeway Towing Inc., in Monterey Park, Calif., commenting to The Wall Street Journal for its recent report, “Small Businesses Fall Behind on Hiring as Inflation Takes a Toll.” (Subscription may be required.) Freeway Towing has 46 employees, down from nearly 70 before the pandemic. The company would employ 100 or more people if finding workers wasn’t such a challenge, Haddad told the newspaper.