CHICAGO — February 12, 2007 — SurePayroll released its annual "SurePayroll Top Ten States for Small Businesses" list today, identifying the states in which small businesses have the best potential to do well in 2007.
Utah, Maryland and Nevada ranked highest in the SurePayroll Top Ten study, which is based on SurePayroll's monthly Small Business Scorecard.
"These states were able to grow their small business economies in 2006 when economic growth was fairly sluggish," said SurePayroll President Michael Alter. "We believe they will continue to be strong states for small businesses throughout 2007."
The SurePayroll Top Ten
According to SurePayroll, the 10 states that will be best for small businesses in 2007, ranked by
likely performance, are:
SurePayroll awarded these states its SurePayroll Top Ten designation because they have had strong growth in the past. For example, in the last 12 months small businesses in Utah, Maryland and Nevada led the nation by growing 11.6, 7.0 and 5.4 percent, respectively.
The Small Business Employee's Perspective
The SurePayroll Top Ten is based on employee growth. The underlying presumption is that growth in
size suggests that a small business is doing well.
Of the SurePayroll Top Ten — those states SurePayroll identifies as fast-growth states for small businesses in 2007 — nine states (Utah, Maryland, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Indiana, California and Texas) had both growth in headcount and growth in average salaries in 2006. North Carolina, in contrast, witnessed a decline in average small business payrolls, with salaries dropping by 0.9 percent on average.
The ability to grow employee headcount in an environment where labor costs are rising also shows strength in these Top Ten states' small business economies.
At the same time, small business employees in these growth states can also view these economic results positively — jobs are available to them and salaries are rising. While employees in other states did experience salary growth in 2006, the job growth in most states was flat or declining in 2006.
About the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard
SurePayroll, the nation's fifth largest payroll provider and largest online payroll provider, aggregates data for more than 15,000 customers on a monthly basis and provides detailed information on small business employment, earnings, and subcontractor trends.
About SurePayroll:
SurePayroll is the online alternative to ADP® and Paychex®. SurePayroll's service and team members are dedicated to providing an easy, convenient online payroll service at a price small business owners can afford. Tens of thousands of customers rely on SurePayroll to process payroll wherever they want in as few as two minutes.
In addition, SurePayroll offers small businesses solutions for managing 401(k) plans, health insurance, workers' compensation, HR compliance and employee screening. For accountants and banking partners, SurePayroll provides private-label services that enable them to offer payroll processing to their small business clients.
Over the last decade, SurePayroll has received numerous prestigious awards for its innovative technology and outstanding customer service, including recognition from PC Magazine, Inc. 500, Accounting Today, the Stevie Awards and many others.
For more information, you can visit http://www.surepayroll.com, call 877.954.7873 or follow us on http://twitter.com/SurePayroll.
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