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Hire up: the
numbers don't lie—small-business hiring
is still resilient
SMALL IMPROVEMENTS can add
up to big improvements over time. And the continued slight
increases in small-business hiring shown by the SurePayroll
Hiring Index suggest that entrepreneurs are showing major
resilience in a tough business environment. "We don't
have robust hiring," says Michael Alter, president
of SurePayroll, "but we do have positive [hiring]
growth."
The index, compiled by the Skokie, Illinois-based payroll
service,
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stood at 10,494 at the end of August, barely
higher than June's l0,466. But, Alter notes, it's up
nearly 5 percent from January 2004. The latest figures
also mark 17 months during which there was only one
down-tick in small-business hiring.
The Northeast led the nation in regional hiring. In
fact, its 7 percent increase in small-business payrolls
was the only increase among the regions. Alter says
Northeast entrepreneurs were catching up after a rough
2004. And all employers increased their use of contractors
in lieu of hiring fulltime employees, a persistent trend
that Alter ascribes to caution in an uncertain economy.
Salary levels, however, have not staged a rebound.
Average wages for small-company employees dropped 2.3
percent for the year through August. To Alter, that
suggests the troubling specter of lower consumer buying
power, as prices for fuel, health care and borrowing
increase. "I'm starting to get concerned about
stealth inflation," he says. "At some point,
that has got to come around and hit the small-business
economy."
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