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Rent delinquency rates among US small businesses increased significantly this month, a new report shows, Bloomberg News reported. About 37% of small businesses, which between them employ almost half of all Americans working in the private sector, were unable to pay their rent in full in October. That’s according to a survey from Boston-based Alignable, a network of 7 million small business members. It’s up seven percentage points from last month and is now at the highest pace this year, the survey showed. Chuck Casto, head of research, at Alignable, said that small business owners are resilient but incomes are “basically being eaten away by inflationary pressures.” The survey of 4,789 small business owners was conducted between Oct. 15 and Oct. 27. The findings partly reflect how inflation is affecting small businesses. More than half say their rent is at least 10% higher than it was six months ago, and in seven say rents have increased at least 20%.

Elevated Construction and Remodeling LLC has elected to file under subchapter V of chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Louisville Business First reported. Elevated Construction and Remodeling is a Sellersburg, Ind.-based business that was founded about 25 years ago. It services Jefferson, Oldham and Bullitt counties in Kentucky, and Clark, Floyd, Scott and Harrison counties in Indiana. It offers roofing, deck, remodeling and additions services. William Harbison, a member of Seiller Waterman LLC, is representing Elevated Construction in its bankruptcy case. “This small-business case is a perfect example of why Congress chose to streamline the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to make it a more affordable and realistic option for businesses that deserve to be saved, but would have been priced out of a traditional chapter 11 process,” Harbison wrote in a statement to Business First. “Elevated experienced many of the problems that small businesses faced during the pandemic, including the loss of key contributors to illness for extended periods. But Elevated can be profitable again and can continue to contribute to the local community and economy. Elevated will use the tools that Chapter 11 offers to reorganize its debt in a way that is transparent and fair to all of its stakeholders, including its vendors and customers, and it looks forward to serving Southern Indiana for years to come." The company has less than $50,000 in assets, according to the bankruptcy filing. Its estimated liabilities total between $100,001 and $500,000.

The pandemic forced companies to reckon with the cost of producing and shipping goods overseas. Many small businesses that are following multinational counterparts, like Ford Motor, First Solar, Intel and Lego, that have recently announced new U.S. plants as a solution to global snarls that left them without access to key components and empty shelves when consumer demand seemed insatiable, the New York Times reported. The experience has been challenging for small-business owners, many of whom found themselves pushed to the back of the supply line because they did not have the order size, capital or relationships needed to take priority over big firms. And even if they could, the costs of shipping containers, which tripled from pre-pandemic levels, was often prohibitive. Supply chain pressures eased over the summer, but the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s global supply chain pressure index still stands near record highs, and a recent Goldman Sachs survey showed that delays and backlogs remained a top economic concern for small-business owners. With no end in sight to delays and backlogs, building domestic supply chains from scratch is becoming more appealing and feasible. Small businesses are putting a priority on proximity to their customers so they can react to market demands in real time, and are leaning into a resurgent pride in “made in America” goods.

Volume woes at U.S. railroad operators are set to spill into next year as labor shortages continue to hurt the sector that is critical in connecting consumers with businesses and finished goods, according to analysts, Reuters reported. U.S. railroads have come under criticism from regulators and shippers for staffing cuts in pursuit of a leaner operating model that boosted profitability, but affected rail services. "While the labor environment does appear to be incrementally improving over the last several months, it will still take some time to see meaningful service improvement," Wells Fargo said. Railroad profits will be under further pressure from investments in service and U.S. union pay hikes through 2024, according to Susquehanna. The North America railroad industry has also been under scrutiny for working conditions. The Biden administration last month secured a tentative deal between railroads and unions to avert a railway strike that could have wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.’s security tokens restrict debit-card routing competition on online payments, the Wall Street Journal reported. The FTC for the past few years has already been probing whether Visa and Mastercard block merchants from routing payments over other debit-card networks. The networks acknowledged an FTC probe in regulatory filings in recent years. In recent months, the FTC expanded its focus to routing challenges that stem from the networks’ security tokens, the people familiar with the matter said. It couldn’t be determined if the investigation is a new probe or part of the previous one. Visa and Mastercard are by far the two biggest card networks in the U.S., building and maintaining the plumbing that allows Americans to use credit and debit cards at stores and online. Their lion’s share of that market has drawn increasing scrutiny from regulators and fueled tension with merchants, which pay fees set by the networks when a customer pays via card. A Justice Department investigation on whether Visa has unlawfully maintained a dominant market share in debit cards is ongoing. Federal law requires that merchants have the ability to choose from at least two unaffiliated debit-card networks to route transactions. That is supposed to give merchants the option to send debit-card payments over the network that sets lower fees.