Chicago Tribune
May 9, 2005

Small-business owners have not felt optimistic enough to do much hiring this year, according to SurePayroll's Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of the U.S. small-business economy.

Year to date, small businesses have increased employee headcount by 0.2 percent, according to SurePayroll, which analyzes the payrolls of its 15,000 customer businesses.

"The results are quite telling: For small businesses, it's an idle economy. Slow growth," said Michael Alter, SurePayroll's president, adding that April was the 16th consecutive month the company has seen an increase in the number of independent contractors used by small businesses.

Small-business salaries are dropping, too, down 1.8 percent year-to-date. In 2004, small-business salaries dropped 4.8 percent on average.

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