Alignable’s July rent report was just released, and it paints a concerning picture about the effects of the economy on small businesses. The report is based on a survey of 3,553 randomly selected small business owners.

It paints a picture of severe rent struggles for several business sectors, including transportation (trucking companies & car services), restaurants , retail shops, and beauty salons. Rent hikes, labor costs, energy prices, and consumer pullback are all combining to put pressure on small business owners, making rent payments increasingly difficult to make.

According to the survey, 75% of small business owners report that they have yet to see monthly revenues return to their pre-COVID levels. Meanwhile 46% say their rents have increased over the last six months.

In a startling result, 45% of restaurants and 44% of retailers say they could not afford their July rent. Those numbers are up 7% and 9% respectively from their numbers just a month ago. Rent delinquency rates for these two sectors were the highest they had been since 2021.

40% of salons reported not being able to make rent in July. 48% of transportation businesses didn’t have enough cash to make rent in July.

Over all, small business owners in the US had a rent delinquency rate of 34%. In Canada the rate was 37%

At the state level, in July small business owners were delinquent in rent at a rate of 42% in Massachusetts, 41% in New York, 40% in Illinois, and 37% in Michigan.

As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and cool the economy, these numbers are likely to get worse, and that is likely to cool the employment numbers.