Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services, says, “June’s CBIZ Small Business Employment Index reveals another month of little to no growth in the small business job market. We expected to see stronger pickup due to summer seasonal hires; to see a smaller number is probably less than good news.”
Additional take-away points from the June data set include:
- At a glance: Of the companies that were surveyed, the data shows that 22 percent reported a decrease in employee headcount while 29 percent increased staffing. 49 percent of the companies involved in the survey maintained their number of employees.
- Small business sector: The slow pickup of the job market may be in part that the small business sector typically requires longer-term economic growth and likely will not drastically change over a seasonal period of time, as previously expected.
- For your consideration: While the small business index revealed less than stellar growth thus far for the summer, other indicators available, such as the payroll processor ADP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are likely tracking companies that have a richer set of resources and may be able to hire at a quicker pace.
“At this point, we believe that labor markets in the small business sector will continue to remain soft to weak through the third quarter, possibly improving as we move into the late fourth quarter,” Noftsinger explains.
