This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Baxter, the business of America's small business

and I welcome Gene Marks of Small Business Column with the Guardian newspaper, UK and

US Edition, as well as our hometown newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. And the dominant

news right now is the Jobs Report from Washington of the last month. This would be to mid-August.

And the data shows a mixed picture. But because the market has been waiting for news about

is inflation ebbing or is inflation surging, every number that we get now from official

reports is open to interpretation. I'm very glad Gene is here because Small Business

has to interpret this as well. Gene, the headline at the Wall Street Journal, Job Gains

eased in summer months. Unemployment increased in August. Players added 187,000 jobs last

month, compared to the economists estimating 170. How do I interpret this from Small Business

point of view? Are we coming out of the shadow of the recession talk? Or are we going

into a darker shadow of recession talk? Good evening to you.

John, yeah. And one other bit of data around it is that job openings have also decreased

as well, which indicates that less businesses, particularly small businesses, are looking

for employees. Which obviously, it dovetails into the conversations you and I have been

having over the past couple of months. I mean, we've been expecting later on in 2023

for there be a slowdown in the economy. And I think we're seeing it now. What we're

seeing, and it gets back to, again, conversations we've had. But this is the impact of the cost

of capital. This is the impact of higher interest rates, very high interest rates, which went

up very high from 3.5% to 8% in primary in just a matter of months. It takes a while

for that to be absorbed. And it's being absorbed right now. And I'm seeing less credit available

for businesses, and I'm seeing less loans being given out the businesses of all sizes,

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