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 ADP Finds Private Sector Added 201,000 Jobs in August). Intuit reported Wednesday that small businesses with fewer than 20 employees created 30,000 jobs in August, based on Intuit Online Payroll clients (see Intuit Finds Small Businesses Added 30,000 Jobs in August). The official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report on Friday found that employers added 96,000 jobs in August, with the private sector adding 103,000 jobs, offset by job losses in the public sector (see Employers Added 96,000 Jobs in August).

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.