Year to date, small businesses have increased employee headcount by 0.2%. The national SurePayroll Hiring Index, which measures the number of employees within small businesses, ended April at 10,458. We closed 2004 at 10,435.
Small business hiring is stagnant relative to what we'd need for a solid economic recovery. There's been little change in average small business size in the United States since the end of 2004.
Small business paychecks were down in March. The SurePayroll Pay Index clocked in at 935 at the end of April, a seven point drop from March.
Small business salaries are now down 1.8% year to date. In 2004, small business salaries dropped 4.8% on average. Previously, in January through March of this year, it looked like we would have a smaller salary drop in 2005 than we had in 2004. But, based on April's data, it may be the case that we will have a bigger salary drop in 2005 than we had in 2004. April's 1.8% year-to-date drop translates to an annualized rate of 5.27%, exceeding the salary decline we saw in 2004.
The monthly SurePayroll Scorecard data for April 2005 can be found in the table below.
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About the Scorecard
The SurePayroll Hiring Index and the SurePayroll Pay Index are generated as part of SurePayroll’s Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of the U.S. small business economy. The Small Business Scorecard is generated from actual payroll data — paychecks issued to contractors and employees — for tens of thousands of small businesses nationwide.
Questions regarding the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard can be directed to Michael Alter. Michael can be reached at malter@surepayroll.com or by phone at 847.676.8420 ext. 7229.
Small Business Scorecards Archive:
