The March CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees, increased by .69 percent through the month, after posting an increase of .25 percent in February.

Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services, offers, “This month showed a continuing positive trend in small business employment levels. This data, combined with other recently released reports showing positive growth, sends a strong signal that although slow, there is reason to be positive about a labor market recovery in the near term.”

Additional take-away points from the March data set include:

- At a glance: The CBIZ index focuses on hiring trends at small companies. The data shows that 25.8 percent of the companies surveyed increased payroll, while 53 percent maintained headcount. 21.2 percent of companies in the index did decrease their employee count, however.

- Entrepreneurial organizations ramping up hiring: As the “engine of our economy,” small business hiring patterns show that sub-300 employee companies tend to jumpstart their hiring before their larger peers.

- What to watch: The small business owner will need to closely observe the impact of rising oil prices and the resulting effects it will have on business projections and operations, the labor market and the overall economy.

“Following the positive readings of the BLS data on Friday, we see the uptrend in the small business hiring as a sign of good things to come as business owner hiring confidence continues to climb,” asserts Noftsinger.