According to Intuit’s Small Business Employment and Revenue Indexes, small business employment within the U.S. grew slightly during September, even though compensation and hours worked declined. The employment index showed a 0.01 percent increase, which translates roughly to 1,000 jobs among the 20-million workers small businesses employ.
While this is a minimal increase, according to Susan Woodard, the economist who works with Intuit in the creation of the indexes said, “The silver lining is that the small business hiring rate is up for the 11th month in a row.”*
The average monthly compensation of small business workers also decreased 0.2% which translates to a $7.00 decline and an equivalent wage of $2,657. Average monthly hours worked also decreased by 12-minutes from August.
Intuit also reported that small business revenues declined 0.04 percent in August with only construction and real estate sectors showing an increase. At the same time, the professional service industry and food and hospitality service sectors had the most significant declines (0.4% each).
*- Source: Intuit, Small Business Employment Grows Slightly in September, Intuit, Mountain View, CA – October 1, 2013.
About the Intuit Indexes: The Intuit Small Business Employment Index is a measure of employment for firms with fewer than 20 employees. It is derived using aggregate and anonymous online employment data for approximately 170,000 small business employers, a subset of the more than 1 million businesses using Intuit Payroll.