Year to date, small businesses have increased employee headcount by 0.3%. The national SurePayroll Hiring Index, which measures the number of employees within small businesses, ended May at 10,466. We closed 2004 at 10,435.
It's looking like 2005 won't be a boom year for small businesses. Far from it. On an annualized basis, we are tracking on a 0.7% increase in small business size.
Small business paychecks were down in April. The SurePayroll Pay Index clocked in at 930 at the end of May, a five point drop from April.
Small business salaries are now down 2.3% year to date. In 2004, small business salaries dropped 4.8% on average. Based on May's data, we will have a bigger salary drop in 2005 than we had in 2004. May's 2.3% year-to-date drop translates to an annualized rate of 5.34%, exceeding the salary decline we saw in 2004.
The monthly SurePayroll Scorecard data for May 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.
Questions regarding the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard can be directed to Marissa Hermo. Marissa can be reached at mhermo@kruppnyc.com or by phone at 212.886.6711.
Small Business Scorecards Archive:
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