Small Business Employment Sees Positive Growth

 Small business employment grew by 0.3 percent in January, for annual growth rate of more than 4 percent according to the Intuit Small Business Employment Index.

“A substantial fraction of the new jobs in the recovery have been created by small businesses,” said Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the Index.

“This month’s numbers are stronger than last month and they look better in every category. These job gains contrast sharply with mild job gains for the overall economy. As small businesses generally recover sooner than big businesses, this continued growth is quite encouraging for economic recovery.”

Based on this latest data, the employment growth rate for December was revised upward to 0.4 percent, equating to 80,000 jobs added for the month and a nearly 5 percent annual growth rate. Since the growth trend first began in October 2009, small business jobs have increased by a revised estimate of just over 1 million.

Small business hourly employees worked an average of 108.1 hours in January, translating to a 24.9-hour work week. This is a 0.6 percent increase from the revised December figure of 107.4 hours.

“It is not just the employment figures that are encouraging,” Woodward said. “Hours worked for hourly employees are also up strongly after remaining flat at just under 104 hours per month for most of 2009 and early 2010.”

“It’s now at 108 hours per month and what’s exciting is that our other data is showing a rise in people working full time at small businesses. Small businesses now employ 22.5 percent full-time employees, compared to a low of 20.4 percent back in January 2010.”

Average monthly pay for all small business employees was $2,619 per month in January, a 0.3 percent increase from the December revised estimate of $2,612 per month. This is just over 3 percent at an annual rate. This translates to wages of about $31,400 per year, which is part-time work for many small business employees.