Intuit, the maker of such financial software as Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax, has released its monthly Small Business Employment Index report for May. The report is based on aggregate and anonymous online employment data from about 50,000 small business employers, each with less than 20 employees, which use Intuit's Online Payroll software.
"These smallest employers are important to the economy as they comprise 87 percent of the total U.S. private employer base and employ nearly 20 million people," the company says.
Intuit found that in May, small business employment grew by 0.1%, equating to a 1.6% annual growth rate. This translates to about 25,000 new jobs for the month. The firm estimates 240,000 total new jobs since October.
"While the May growth in employment is not as strong as last month, it's still going up," said Dr. Susan Woodward, an economist who worked with Intuit to create the index. "Despite the slower growth rate and slight decline in hours worked, the recovery is still unambiguous in the Intuit data: employment and compensation per worker continue to show that a recovery is underway. The new hire rate continues to rise slightly, as does the hourly rate of pay."
"We continue to see modest growth for small business employment," adds Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions division. "While signs of a recovery have slowed slightly this month, the data overall still continues to show an upward trend."
Compensation per worker actually increased in May as well (by 0.3%), but hours worked declined by 0.1%. Monthly hours worked in May fell to 101.6 hours compared to a revised estimate of 101.7 hours in April. This translates to wages of about $30,800 per year for all employees and a 23.5-hour week for hourly employees.
"Hours worked for hourly employees dropped slightly this month after rising a little last month, but the drop was enough to pull the trend down," Woodward said. The good news though is that hours per worker are falling at a slower rate."
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It's very slow...
As a web site owner of safety and security products, people are still fearful for their safety during this down turn. Although hiring is slowly improving, my sense is that it's not so much the enconomy improving as small business owners adjusting to the bad economic times. Thanks, Chris.
a few good jobs
One thing that the jobs report doesn't show or tell is WHAT KIND of new jobs have been "created". From a personal standpoint, my company just hired 3 new people. On the surface, it sounds great.
But honestly, our company is a seasonal business, like so many "small" under 20 employee businesses. The people we hired are on summer break from college and by mid-August, they will be back to school & our "season" will be almost over. We'll work our existing staff the same way we've doing "off-season" for the past 2 years.
Our original plans were to hire 2 full time & 1 part time, but we have been blessed with 3 people who are just excellent, so we'll call them full-timers. Will there hours be 40 plus weekly? Probably not. At least 30? Yeah, between 30 - 35. Compared to past years, we could guarantee 45 plus hours weekly at least through mid-July. How many other "summer jobs" are in the same situation across the USA?
Are our customers spending money? They want to, but they're being cautious. They're looking for value. They are willing to spend more with merchandise that is of better quality and therefore better overall value.
Unless Congress makes the so-called "Bush" tax cuts permanent and decides to get its spending habits in order, the average consumer is going to have less & less loose money in their pocket for casual, spur of the moment spending. Government tax & spend is NOT helping this economy.
Small Business Jobs
Despite the slower growth rate and slight decline in hours worked, the recovery is still unambiguous in the Intuit data: employment and compensation per worker continue to show that a recovery is underway. The new hire rate continues to rise slightly, as does the hourly rate of pay.
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