The Small Business Employment Index put out by business and financial management provider Intuit shows that small businesses continued to hire more employees in March. This news underscores a trend that began in mid-2009. The Index estimates roughly 175,000 new jobs have been created since last June.
March’s growth numbers, a misleading small number of .25%, translated into the creation of 50,000 new jobs in the month alone. That number is up from February, and when projected over the entire year, spells a 3% annual growth rate.
“All the numbers indicate a continuing recovery for small businesses that began in the summer of 2009,” says economist Susan Woodward. “And while the numbers may seem small, they show clearly that small businesses are hiring, and stopped trimming their payrolls last summer.”
A surplus of out-of-work numbers means people need jobs—fast. Woodward says, “Small businesses are hiring, but with the excess supply of workers, they don’t have to pay more to lure people away from other jobs, because so many do not have a job.”
Average compensation and number of hours worked per month for hourly employees remained flat in March. On average, hourly employees worked 24–hour work weeks, which translates to about $31K per year.
Intuit’s index is put out once a month, and focuses on employment trends for companies with less than 20 employees. That represents a whopping 87% of all U.S. employer firms and encompasses almost 20 million people domestically. The Index pulls stats from Intuit’s 50,000 employer customer base and analyzes small business employment, hours worked and compensation.