CBIZ reported a rebound in small business employment in August among its payroll clients following a decrease in July.
The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees, increased by 1.15 percent in August, following a decrease of 1.57 percent in July, the company said Friday.
On Thursday, a competing payroll services provider, ADP, reported that the private sector added 201,000 jobs in August, achieving its largest gain in five months and surpassing July’s revised tally of 173,000 added jobs, with small businesses with less than 50 employees adding 99,000 jobs in August (see
CBIZ Payroll Services manages payroll services for more than 3,000 businesses. Its index reflects industries and geographies corresponding to the markets across the United States where CBIZ provides human capital services.
Of the companies surveyed by CBIZ, 29 percent increased their staffing numbers while 20 percent of the companies decreased employee headcounts. Fifty-one percent of the companies surveyed maintained their number of employees.
As the so-called “fiscal cliff” approaches, more small business owners may be hesitant to hire new employees in anticipation of a reduction in business demand, CBIZ noted. And as students return to college campuses and the summer travel season wanes, CBIZ expects to see the index turn negative for September before heading higher once more as we approach the holiday shopping season.
“In order to have a material impact on the broad number of unemployed Americans, job growth will need to continue to grow at a pace much faster than we have experienced over the past few months,” said CBIZ Payroll Services business unit president Philip Noftsinger in a statement.