Year to date, small businesses have increased employee headcount by 0.4%. The national SurePayroll Hiring Index, which measures the number of employees within small businesses, ended July at 10,477, an 11-point increase from June. We closed 2004 at 10,435.
For those who tend to see the glass as being half full, there's some good news. We've had five straight months of increased hiring. In the past sixteen months, we've only had one "down" month.
For those who tend to see the glass as being half empty, 2005 probably won't be remembered as a great year. On an annualized basis, we are tracking on a 0.7% increase in small business size. It's a recovery, but it's moving at a snail's pace.
Small business paychecks were up in July. The SurePayroll Pay Index clocked in at 935 at the end of July, a four-point increase from June.
Small business salaries are now down 1.8% year to date. In 2004, small business salaries dropped 4.8% on average. Based on July's data, we will have a smaller salary drop in 2005 than we had in 2004. July's 1.8% year-to-date drop translates to an annualized decline of 3.0%. For small business employees, there's bad news and there's good news. The bad news is your salary is likely lower this year than last. The good news? It could be worse.
The monthly SurePayroll Scorecard data for July 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.
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