According to SurePayroll’s monthly Small Business Scorecard survey (customer survey based on 25,000 small businesses nationwide), small business hiring is up slightly in October from the month of September, bringing us to a 2.2 percent increase year-to-date. Unfortunately, small business salaries are headed in the opposite direction, with a year-to-date decline of 7.3 percent.
Studies like this one reinforce my belief that we are in a prolonged recession from can you buy topamax online which there is no clear end in sight. Wall Street’s ups and downs do not measure the real economy. Until small business starts expanding, there is little hope of a sustainable upturn anytime soon.
Also of concern in this survey is the finding that optimism among small business owners surveyed is continuing to decline, dropping to 50 percent – one of the lowest of levels of the year.
I wonder how much of this could also be due to the talent pool growing more and more as people are becoming available for jobs. This puts businesses in the position to hire more, while paying less because they know few people can afford to be too picky right now. Also, some businesses who may’ve been unable to hire before can now afford to hire employees. It seems like there are so many articles out there right now that say now is the time to launch due to this employee/job situation.